Related papers: QCD at small x and nucleus-nucleus collisions
The early stages of heavy ion collisions are dominated by high density systems of gluons that carry each a small fraction $x$ of the momenta of the colliding nucleons. A distinguishing feature of such systems is the phenomenon of…
The high parton density regime of the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), where the physics of parton saturation is expected to be dominant, is briefly discussed. Some phenomenological aspects of saturation are described, mainly focusing on…
Heavy ion collisions pose interesting challenges to quantum chromodynamics, because they probe the parton structure of the incoming nuclei at very small longitudinal momentum fractions. Combined with the large size of nuclei, this may lead…
Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of strong interactions of quarks and gluons collectively called partons, the basic constituents of all nuclear matter. Its non-abelian character manifests in nature in the form of two remarkable…
Saturation is expected to occur when a high density of partons (mainly gluons)- or equivalently strong fields in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) - is realized in the weak coupling regime. A way to reach saturation is through the high-energy…
I present the state of our understanding of the QCD dynamics at play in the parton saturation regime of nuclear wave functions. I explain what are the biggest open questions in the field, their intrinsic interest, but also why is it…
We present an overview of theoretical aspects of the phenomenon of gluon saturation in high energy scattering in Quantum Chromo Dynamics. Then we review the state-of-the-art of saturation-based phenomenological approaches to the study and…
The relationship between RHIC and HERA data is explored using the idea of saturation (color glass condensate) as a unifying framework for interpretation. A description of the early stages of a heavy ion collision is given with the RHIC…
The initial conditions in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are determined by the small momentum fraction part of the nuclear wavefunction. This is the regime of gluon saturation and the most direct way to experimentally study it would…
These lectures provide a modern introduction to selected topics in the physics of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions which shed light on the fundamental theory of strong interactions, the Quantum Chromodynamics. The emphasis is on the…
I discuss the saturation regime of QCD: the weak-coupling regime that describes large parton densities inside hadrons and the resulting high-energy behavior of scattering amplitudes. I briefly review past successes in the context of deep…
Gluon distributions of colliding hadrons saturate as a result of the non-linear evolution equations of QCD. As a consequence there exists the so called saturation momentum, which is related to the gluon density per unit rapidity per…
Atomic number ($A$) and energy ($\roots$) scaling exponents of multiplicity and transverse energy in heavy ion collisions are analytically derived in the perturbative QCD + saturation model. The exponents depend on the small-$x$ behaviour…
The experimental results on hadron production obtained recently at RHIC offer a new prospective on the energy dependence of the nuclear collision dynamics. In particular, it is possible that parton saturation -- the phenomenon likely…
Saturation of gluon distribution is a consequence of the non-linear evolution equations of QCD. Saturation implies the existence of so called saturation momentum which is defined as a gluon density per unit rapidity per transverse area. At…
The physics of the initial conditions of heavy ion collisions is dominated by the nonlinear gluonic interactions of QCD. These lead to the concepts of parton saturation and the Color Glass Condensate (CGC). We discuss recent progress in…
Recent estimates that Color Glass Condensate initial conditions may generate a larger initial eccentricity for noncentral relativistic heavy ion collisions (relative to the initial eccentricity assumed in earlier hydrodynamic calculations)…
We show that instanton calculations in QCD become theoretically well defined in the gluon saturation environment which suppresses large size instantons. The effective cutoff scale is determined by the inverse of the saturation scale. We…
Recent progress in understanding general properties of high energy scattering near the unitarity limit, where high density gluon components of the wavefunction are dominant, is reviewed. The similarity of the QCD problem and that of…
This talk discusses some recent studies of gluon saturation in nuclei. We stress the connection between the initial condition in heavy ion collisions and observables in deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The dominant degree of freedom in the…