Published February 1, 1994 | Version v1
Journal article

Space-time structure of initial parton production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

  • 1. Laboratory of High Energy Physics, P. O. Box 9, SF-00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki (Finland)
  • 2. Nuclear Science Division, Mailstop 70A-3307, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)

Description

The space and time evolution of initial parton production in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is investigated within the framework of perturbative QCD which includes both initial and final state radiations. The uncertainty principle is used to relate the lifetime of a radiating parton to its virtuality and momentum. The interaction time of each hard or semihard parton scattering is also taken into account. For central Au+Au collisions at √s =200 GeV, most of the partons are found to be produced within 0.5 fm/c after the total overlap of the two colliding nuclei. The local momentum distribution is approximately isotropic at that time. The implication on how to treat correctly the secondary scattering in an ultimate parton cascading model is also discussed

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
Journal Volume
49
Journal Issue
3
Journal Page Range
p. 1284-1292.
ISSN
0556-2821
CODEN
PRVDAQ