# A New Approach to Nuclear Collisions at RHIC Energies

## 1 Introduction

The standard parton model approach to proton-proton or also nucleaus-nucleus scattering amounts to presenting the partons of projectile and target by momentum distribution functions, $`f_A`$ and $`f_B`$, and calculating inclusive cross sections as \[sjo87, dur87\]

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{incl}}=\underset{ij}{}𝑑t𝑑x^+𝑑x^{}f_A^i(x^+,Q^2)f_B^j(x^{},Q^2)\frac{d\widehat{\sigma }_{ij}}{dt}(x^+x^{}s),$$

where $`d\widehat{\sigma }_{ij}/dt`$ is the elementary parton-parton cross section. This simple factorisation formula is the result of cancellations of complicated diagrams (AGK cancellations) and hides therefore the complicated multiple scattering structure of the reaction. The most obvious manifestion of such a structure is the fact that the inclusive cross section exceeds the total one, so the average number of elementary interactions must be bigger than one. The usual solution is the so-called eikonalization, which amounts to re-introducing multiple scattering, however, based on the above formula for the inclusive cross section. The latter formula has the disdvantage of having lost many important details about the multiple scattering aspects. Constructing in this way a model (in particular an event generator) for particle production is completely arbitrary. For example, energy obviously must be conserved, but the QCD formulas will not provide the slightest hint how to realize energy conservation in a particular multiple scattering event.

This problem has first been discussed in \[abr92\],\[bra90\]. The authors claim that following from the nonplanar structure of the corresponding diagrams, conserving energy and momentum in a consistent way is crucial, and therefore the incident energy has to be shared between the different elementary interactions, both real and virtual ones.

Following these ideas, we provide in this paper a rigorous treatment of the multiple scattering aspect, such that questions as energy conservation are clearly determined by the rules of field theory, removing the arbitrariness of the procedures applied so far. The general idea is as follows: starting point is an expression for the inelastic cross section for nucleus-nucleus scattering at very high energies, expressed in terms of cut Feynman diagrams. Clearly at this point certain assumptions concerning the dominace of certain classes of diagrams is employed. But this assumptions really define the model, what follows is just the application of the rules of field theory, calculating diagrams, making partial summations, and finally interpreting these partial sums as “partial cross sections” for certain physical processes. Production of particles (on the parton level) is thus completely determined \[wer97\].

## 2 The Elementary Cut Diagram: the Parton Ladder

We want to write down an expression for the inelasic cross secion in nucleus-nucleus (including nucleon-nucleon) scattering in terms of cut Feynman diagrams. We will assume that dominant contributions will come from certain classes of diagrams, which are composed of so-called “elementary diagrams”, also referred to as “elementary interactions”. We will therefore first dicuss the elementary diagrams, before introducing the multiple scattering theory. A complete diagram will certainly contain cut and uncut elementary diagrams. We will investigate explicitely only cut diagrams and use a relation between cut and uncut diagrams to calculate the latter ones.

We assume an elementary interaction to be represented by a parton ladder with “soft ends”, see fig 1.

The central part is a parton ladder with ordered virtualities, such that the highest virtuality is at the center and the virtualities are decreasing towards the ends of the ladder. This part of the diagram can be calculated using perturbative techniques of QCD. Since the virtualities are decreasing towards the ends, one reaches finally values where perturbative calculation can no longer be employed, although the longitudinal momentum fraction of the corresponding parton may be much smaller than one. This means there is still a large mass “object” between the first parton of the ladder and the nucleon, however, with small virtualities involved \[lan94\]. The most naturel candidate for such an object is the soft Pomeron, which can not be calculated from first principles, but where reasonable parametrisations exist, based on general considerations of scattering matrices in the limit of very high energies. So, the mathematical expression corresponding to the cut diagram of fig. 1 is

$$D_{\mathrm{semi}}(s,x^+,x^{},b)=𝑑b^{}\underset{ij}{}\frac{dx_1^+}{x_1^+}\frac{dx_1^{}}{x_1^{}}E_{\mathrm{soft}}^\mathrm{i}(\frac{x_1^+}{x^+},b^{})E_{\mathrm{soft}}^\mathrm{j}(\frac{x_1^{}}{x^{}},bb^{})\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(x_1^+x_1^{}s),$$
(1)   
where $`E_{\mathrm{soft}}`$ represents the soft Pomeron at each end of the ladder and $`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}`$ the parton ladder itself, the precise definition of both quantities being given in the following.

The hard part of the elementary interaction, $`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}`$, is given as

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{kl}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑w^+𝑑w^{}𝑑Q_1^2}`$   
$`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{ik}(Q_0^2,Q_1^2,w^+)E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{jl}(Q_0^2,Q_1^2,w^{}){\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{kl}}{dQ^2}}(w^+w^{}\widehat{s},Q_1^2),`$   
where $`d\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{kl}/dQ^2`$represents the hardest scattering in the middle of the ladder (indicated symbolically by the somewhat thicker ladder rung in fig. 1),

and where $`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}`$ represents the evolution of parton cascade from scale $`Q_0^2`$ to $`Q_1^2`$, using the DGLAP approximation \[alt82, ell96\], given as (see fig. 2)

$$E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{ij}(Q_0^2,Q_1^2,x)=\underset{n\mathrm{}}{lim}E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{(n)ij}(Q_0^2,Q_1^2,x),$$
(3)   
where $`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{(n)}`$ represents an ordered ladder with at most $`n`$ ladder rungs. This is calculated iteratively based on

$`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{(n)ij}(Q_0^2,Q_1^2,x)=\delta (1x)\delta _{ij}\mathrm{\Delta }^i(Q_0^2,Q_1^2)`$ (4)   
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle _{Q_0^2}^{Q_1^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{dQ^2}{Q^2}}{\displaystyle _0^{1ϵ}}{\displaystyle \frac{d\xi }{\xi }}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }}E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{(n1)ik}(Q_0^2,Q^2,\xi )\mathrm{\Delta }^j(Q^2,Q_1^2)P_k^j({\displaystyle \frac{x}{\xi }}),`$   
where the indices $`i`$, $`j`$, $`k`$ represent parton flavors. $`P_k^j`$ are the Altarelli-Parisi splitting functions and $`\mathrm{\Delta }^j`$ is the so-called Sudakov form factor. The soft part of the elementary interaction, $`E_{\mathrm{soft}}`$, is the usual soft Pomeron expression.

In addition to the semihard contribution $`D_{\mathrm{semi}}`$, one has to consider the expression representing the purely soft contribution:

$$D_{\mathrm{soft}}(s,x^+,x^{},b)=E_{\mathrm{soft}}(\frac{s_0}{x^+x^{}s},b),$$
(5)   
with the scale parameter $`s_0=1`$ GeV. The complete contribution, representing an elementary inelastic interaction in an energy range of say $`10`$ \- $`10^4`$ GeV, is therefore given as

$$D=D_{\mathrm{soft}}+D_{\mathrm{semi}}.$$
(6)   
We would like to stress, that the “soft end” of the semihard Pomeron has exactly the same structure as the soft contribution itself, no new parameters enter.

There is still something missing: the outer legs of the elementary diagram are not the nucleons, but nucleon “constituents”, to be more precise quark-antiquark pairs. We call these constituents also “participants” to indicate that they are actively participating in the interaction, in contrast to the remnants, which represent the non-participating part of the nucleons. So for each incoming leg, we have an additional factor $`F_{\mathrm{part}}`$, which we assume to be of the form $`F_{\mathrm{part}}(x)=x^{\alpha _{\mathrm{part}}}`$. Similarly, for each remnant, we add a factor $`F_{\mathrm{remn}}(x)=x^{\alpha _{\mathrm{remn}}}`$, where the arguments of $`F_{\mathrm{remn}}(x)`$ are the momentum fractions of the remnants. We define

$$2G(s,x^+,x^{},b)=F_{\mathrm{part}}(x^+)D(s,x^+,x^{},b)F_{\mathrm{part}}(x^{}),$$

where we introduced a factor 2 for later convenience.

## 3 Multiple Scattering

We assume that the dominant diagrams for nucleus-nucleus scattering are those which consist of elementary diagrams as discussed in the previous sections, see fig. 3.

One easily writes down the corresponding formula: each cut Pomeron contributes a factor $`2CG`$, each uncut one a factor $`(2CG)`$(the semihard Pomeron amplitude is assumed to be imaginary), and each remnant $`F^+`$ or $`F^{}`$. So we get

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2b𝑑T_{AB}\underset{m_1l_1}{}\mathrm{}\underset{m_{AB}l_{AB}}{}\underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}\left\{\underset{\mu =1}{\overset{m_k}{}}dx_{k,\mu }^+dx_{k,\mu }^{}\underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{l_k}{}}d\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+d\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{}\right\}}`$ (7)   
$`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m_k!}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{l_k!}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu =1}{\overset{m_k}{}}}2CG(s,x_{k,\mu }^+,x_{k,\mu }^{},b){\displaystyle \underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{l_k}{}}}2CG(s,\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+,\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{},b)\right\}`$   
$`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}F^+\left(x_i^{P+}{\displaystyle \underset{\pi (k)=i}{}}\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+\right){\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{B}{}}}F^{}\left(x_j^T{\displaystyle \underset{\tau (k)=j}{}}\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{}\right)`$   
with

$$x_i^{P+}=1\underset{\pi (k)=i}{}x_{k,\mu }^+$$

$$x_i^T=1\underset{\tau (k)=j}{}x_{k,\mu }^{},$$

where $`𝑑T_{AB}`$ represents the integration over transverse coordinates of projectile and target nucleons with the appropriate weight given by the so-called thickness functions \[wer93\]. The factor $`D_{AB}`$ is given as

$$D_{AB}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}\left\{\frac{1}{\sqrt{C}}+(1\frac{1}{\sqrt{C}}\delta _i^+)\right\}\underset{j=1}{\overset{B}{}}\left\{\frac{1}{\sqrt{C}}+(1\frac{1}{\sqrt{C}}\delta _j^{})\right\},$$

with

$$\delta _n^\pm =\{\begin{array}{cc}1\hfill & \mathrm{if}\mathrm{nucleon}\mathrm{is}\mathrm{passive}\hfill \\ 0\hfill & \mathrm{if}\mathrm{nucleon}\mathrm{is}\mathrm{active}\hfill \end{array},$$

where an active nucleon participates in at least one elementary interaction, whereas a passive one does not. The functions $`\pi (k)`$ and $`\tau (k)`$ refer to the projectile and the target nucleons participating in the $`k^{\mathrm{th}}`$ interaction. We fully account for energy-momentum conservation, which we consider extremely important due to the nonplanarity of the diagrams, implying the interactions to occur in parallel.

The expansion of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}`$ in terms of cut diagrams as given in eq. 7 represents a sum of a large number of positive and negative terms, including all kinds of interferences, which excludes any probabilistic interpretation. Our strategy consists therefore of performing partial summations such that the remaining terms allow such an interpretation \[agk73\]. So we classify the diagrams according to the cut elementary diagrams (real emissions), and then sum over all diagrams of a given class, which amounts to summing over uncut elementary diagrams (sum over virtual emissions):

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{cut}\mathrm{diagrams}𝒟}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑X𝑑\stackrel{~}{X}𝒟}`$   
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{cut}\mathrm{ladders}}{}}dX\left\{{\displaystyle \underset{\mathrm{uncut}\mathrm{ladders}}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{~}{X}𝒟}\right\},`$   
where $`𝒟`$ is the mathematical expression corresponding to a diagram as shown in fig. 3, appearing in formula 7, and where $`X`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{X}`$ represents all the light cone momenta of the cut and uncut elementary diagrams. The term in brackets $`\left\{\mathrm{}\right\}`$ may be finally interpreted as probability for the corresponding “ladder configuration”.

Let us write the formulas explicitely. We have

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}(s)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle d^2b𝑑T_{AB}\underset{m_1}{}\mathrm{}\underset{m_{AB}}{}\underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}\left\{\underset{\mu =1}{\overset{m_k}{}}dx_{k,\mu }^+dx_{k,\mu }^{}\right\}}`$ (8)   
$`{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}}\left\{{\displaystyle \frac{1}{m_k!}}{\displaystyle \underset{\mu =1}{\overset{m_k}{}}}2G(s,x_{k,\mu }^+,x_{k,\mu }^{},b)\right\}R(s,x^{P+},x^T,b),`$   
with

$`R(s,x^{P+},x^T,b)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{l_1}{}}\mathrm{}{\displaystyle \underset{l_{AB}}{}}{\displaystyle \underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}\left\{\underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{l_k}{}}d\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+d\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{}\right\}\underset{k=1}{\overset{AB}{}}\left\{\frac{1}{l_k!}\underset{\lambda =1}{\overset{l_k}{}}2G(s,\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+,\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{},b)\right\}}`$ (9)   
$`\times `$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{A}{}}}F^+\left(x_i^{P+}{\displaystyle \underset{\pi (k)=i}{}}\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^+\right){\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{B}{}}}F^{}\left(x_j^T{\displaystyle \underset{\tau (k)=j}{}}\stackrel{~}{x}_{k,\lambda }^{}\right).`$   
The variables appearing in eq. (8) may be represented by two multivariables: the interaction-type variable $`M`$ which specifies for each of the $`AB`$ nucleon pairs the type of the interaction (how many cut Pomerons of which type occur), and the momentum variable $`X`$, already mentoned earlier, which specifies for each elementary interaction the momentum fractions. Eq. (8) may thus be written as

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}\text{ }}=\underset{M}{}𝑑X\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X).$$
(10)   
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X)`$ is the integrand of eq. (8). Both variables, $`K=\{M,X\}`$ represent a “ladder configuration” and $`\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X)`$ considered to be the corresponding probability density.

There are two fundamental problems to be solved:

* the sum over virtual emmisions has to be performed
* tools have to be delevopped to deal with the multidimensional probability distribution $`\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X)`$.

Both are difficult tasks. There is no way to do the summation numericly in case of two heavy nuclei $`A`$ and $`B`$: we have $`AB`$ summation indices, so if we assume 10 terms per index to reach convergence, we have to sum over $`10^{AB}`$ terms! It is also out of question to use Monte Carlo methods, since positive and negative terms occur. However, we are able to provide a solution, as discussed later. Concerning the multidimensional probability distribution $`\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X)`$, we are going to develop methods well known in statistical physics (Markov chain techniques), which we also are going to discuss in detail later. So finally, we are able to calculate the probability distribution $`\mathrm{\Omega }(M,X)`$, and are able to generate (in a Monte Carlo fashion) “ladder configurations” $`(M,K)`$ according to this probability distribution. The next task amounts to generate explicitely partons, again based on our master formula eq. 8. This will be discussed in next section.

## 4 Parton Configurations

In this section, we consider the generation of parton configurations in nucleus-nucleus (including proton-proton) scattering for a given ladder configuration, which means, the number of elementary interactions per nucleon-nucleon pair is known, as well as the light cone momentum fractions $`x^+`$ and $`x^{}`$ of each elementary interaction. A parton configuration is specified by the number of partons, their types and momenta. We showed earlier that the inelastic cross section may be written as

$$\sigma _{\mathrm{inel}}=\underset{K𝒦}{}\mathrm{\Omega }(K),$$
(11)   
where the symbol $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ means $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and where $`K=\{M,X\}`$ represents a ladder configuration. The function $`\mathrm{\Omega }(K)`$ is known (see eq. (8)) and is interpreted as probability distribution for a ladder configuration $`K`$. For each individual ladder a term $`2CG`$ appears in the formula for $`\mathrm{\Omega }(K)`$, where $`2G`$ itself can be expressed in terms of parton configurations, which provides probability distributions for parton configurations, and which provides the basis for generating partons. We want to stress that the parton generation is also based on the master formula eq. (8), no new elements enter. In the following, we want to discuss in detail the generation of parton configurations for an elementary interaction with given light cone momentum fractions $`x^+`$ and $`x^{}`$and given impact parameter difference $`b`$ between the corresponding pair of interacting nucleons.

First, we have to specify the type of elementary interaction (soft or semihard). The corresponding probabilities are

$$G_{\mathrm{semi}}(s,x^+,x^{},b)/G(s,x^+,x^{},b)$$
(12)   
and

$$G_{\mathrm{soft}}(s,x^+,x^{},b)/G(s,x^+,x^{},b)$$
(13)   
respectively.

Let us now consider a semihard contribution. We obtain the desired probability distributions from the explicit expressions for $`2G_{\mathrm{semi}}`$. For given $`x^+`$, $`x^{}`$, we have

$$2G_{\mathrm{semi}}(s,x^+,x^{},b)𝑑x_1^+𝑑x_1^{}\left\{d^2b^{}\underset{ij}{}E_{\mathrm{soft}}^i(\frac{x_1^+}{x^+},b^{})E_{\mathrm{soft}}^j(\frac{x_1^{}}{x^{}},bb^{})\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(x_1^+x_1^{}s)\right\},$$
(14)   
with

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{kl}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑w^+𝑑w^{}𝑑Q^2}`$   
$`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{ik}(Q_0^2,Q^2,w^+)E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{jl}(Q_0^2,Q^2,w^{}){\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{kl}}{dQ^2}}(w^+w^{}\widehat{s},Q^2),`$   
representing the perturbative parton-parton cross section, where both initial partons are taken at the virtuality $`Q_0^2`$. The integrand $`\left\{\mathrm{}\right\}`$ of eq. 14 serves as probability distribution to generate $`x_1^+`$ and $`x_1^{}`$.

Knowing the momentum fractions $`x_1^+`$ and $`x_1^{}`$of the “first partons” of the parton ladder, we can construct the complete ladder. To do so, we generalize the definition of the parton-parton cross section $`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}`$ to arbitrary virtualities of the initial partons, we define

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{kl}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑w^+𝑑w^{}𝑑Q^2}`$   
$`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{ik}(Q_1^2,Q^2,w^+)E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{jl}(Q_2^2,Q^2,w^{}){\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{kl}}{dQ^2}}(w^+w^{}\widehat{s},Q^2).`$   
and

$`\sigma _{\text{ord}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle 𝑑w^{}𝑑Q^2}`$   
$`E_{\mathrm{QCD}}^{jk}(Q_2^2,Q^2,w^{})\mathrm{\Delta }^i(Q_1^2,Q^2){\displaystyle \frac{d\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{ki}}{dQ^2}}(w^{}\widehat{s},Q^2).`$   
representing ladders with ordering of virtualities on both sides ($`\sigma _{\text{jet}}`$) or on one side only ($`\sigma _{\text{ord}}`$). We calculate and tabulate $`\sigma _{\text{jet}}`$ and $`\sigma _{\text{ord}}`$ initially so that we can use them via interpolation to generate partons. The generation of partons is done in an iterative fashion based on the following equations:

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{dQ^2}{Q^2}\frac{d\xi }{\xi }\mathrm{\Delta }^i(Q_1^2,Q^2)\frac{\alpha }{2\pi }P_i^k(\xi )\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{kj}(Q^2,Q_2^2,\xi \widehat{s})}`$   
$`+\sigma _{\mathrm{ord}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s}).`$   
and

$`\sigma _{\mathrm{ord}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s})`$ $`=`$ $`\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}^{ij}(Q_1^2,Q_2^2,\widehat{s})`$   
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{k}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{dQ^2}{Q^2}\frac{d\xi }{\xi }\mathrm{\Delta }^i(Q_1^2,Q^2)\frac{\alpha }{2\pi }P_i^k(\xi )\sigma _{\mathrm{ladder}}^{kj}(Q^2,Q_2^2,\xi \widehat{s})}.`$   
## 5 Outlook

So far we presented a consistent and very transparent new approch to calculate parton production in nucleus-nucleus (including nucleon-nucleon) scattering. But, unfortunately, the real world consists of hadrons, so we still have to deal with the problem of hadronization. This is not so clear. We provide a “minimal model” where we simply translate the partons from each individual elementary interaction into the language of relativistic strings, the latter ones being decayed using the machinery of relativistic string decay. An alternative would be to take our partons as initial condition for a transport treatment of a partonic system. We do not want to explore these options any further in this paper.

## 6 Acknowledgements

This work has been funded in part by the IN2P3/CNRS (PICS 580) and the Russian Foundation of Basic Researches (RFBR-98-02-22024).