High-pT Physics in the Heavy Ion Era

Aimed at graduate students and researchers in the field of high-energy nuclear physics, this book provides an overview of the basic concepts of large transverse momentum particle physics, with a focus on pQCD phenomena. It examines high-pT probes of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and will serve as a handbook for those working on RHIC and LHC data analyses. Starting with an introduction and review of the field, the authors look at basic observables and experimental techniques, concentrating on relativistic particle kinematics, before moving onto a discussion about the origins of high-pT physics. The main features of high-pT physics are placed within a historical context and the authors adopt an experimental outlook, highlighting the most important discoveries leading up to the foundation of modern QCD theory. Advanced methods are described in detail, making this book especially useful for newcomers to the field.1. Introduction and overview; 2. Experimental facilities; 3. Basic observables; 4. Some experimental techniques; 5. The search for structure; 6. Origins of high pT physics - the search for the W Boson; 7. Discovery of hard scattering in p+p collisions; 8. Direct-single lepton production and the discovery of charm; 9. J/psi, u and Drell-Yan pair production; 10. Two particle correlations; 11. Direct photon production; 12. The search for jets; 13. QCD in hard-scattering, the factorization theorem; 14. Application to RHIC; 15. Application to LHC; Appendix A. Probability and statistics; Appendix B. Monte Carlo calculations; Appendix C. Fits and systematic errors; Appendix D. The shape of the xE distribution triggered by a jet fragment; Appendix E. kT phenomenology and Gaussian smearing; Appendix F. Lorentz invariant kT smearing; References; Index.