Nonthermal p/π ratio at LHC as a consequence of hadronic final state interactions.

Recent LHC data on Pb+Pb reactions at sqrt[s](NN) = 2.7 TeV suggests that the p/π is incompatible with thermal models. We explore several hadron ratios (K/π, p/π, Λ/π, Ξ/π) within a hydrodynamic model with a hadronic after burner, namely the ultrarelativistic quantum molecular dynamics model 3.3, and show that the deviations can be understood as a final state effect. We propose the p/π as an observable sensitive on whether final state interactions take place or not. The measured values of the hadron ratios do then allow us to gauge the transition energy density from hydrodynamics to the Boltzmann description. We find that the data can be explained with transition energy densities of 840 ± 150 MeV/fm(3).

Heavy quark energy loss in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions at the LHC.

One of the most promising probes to study deconfined matter created in high energy nuclear collisions is the energy loss of (heavy) quarks. It has been shown in experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider that even charm and bottom quarks, despite their high mass, experience a remarkable medium suppression in the quark gluon plasma. In this exploratory investigation we study the energy loss of heavy quarks in high multiplicity proton-proton collisions at LHC energies. Although the colliding systems are smaller than compared to those at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (p+p vs Au+Au), the higher energy might lead to multiplicities comparable to Cu+Cu collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The interaction of charm quarks with this environment gives rise to a non-negligible suppression of high momentum heavy quarks in elementary collisions.

Hadronic matter is soft.

The stiffness of the hadronic equation of state has been extracted from the production rate of K+ mesons in heavy-ion collisions around 1 AGeV incident energy. The data are best described with a compression modulus K around 200 MeV, a value which is usually called "soft." This is concluded from a detailed comparison of the results of transport theories with the experimental data using two different procedures: (i) the energy dependence of the ratio of K+ from Au+Au and C+C collisions and (ii) the centrality dependence of the K+ multiplicities. It is demonstrated that input quantities of these transport theories which are not precisely known, such as the kaon-nucleon potential, the deltaN --> NK+lambda cross section, or the lifetime of the delta in matter, do not modify this conclusion.