Studies in elementary-particle physics

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5075000

Appell, D A

Three studies in elementary particle physics are presented. In the first, titled Jets as a probe of quark-gluon plasmas, the author investigates the propagation of jets through a quark-gluon plasma. The transverse-momentum imbalance of a jet pair is shown to be sensitive to multiple scattering off the constituents of the plasma for expected values of the plasma temperature and size. This raises the possibility that such transverse-momentum imbalance could be used as a probe of a quark-gluon plasma produced by partonic interactions in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. The second topic considered is Soft gluon effects and the normalization of the Drell-Yan cross section. There he analyzes the sensitivity of the inclusive Drell-Yan cross section to soft gluon effects, using a previously developed summation procedure which includes nonleading logarithmic effects. By varying an infrared cutoff in gluon energies, the author studies the importance of soft, but still perturbative, gluons to the normalization of the cross section or, equivalently, the K-factor. Finally, in Problems of dimensional reduction and inflationary cosmology, he discusses various aspects of the relationship between Kaluza-Klein theories and cosmology, with particular emphasis on the process of dimensional reduction. Some features of higher-dimensional Friedman-Robertson-Walker-type universes are considered, such as the compatibility of the Einstein equations, their connection with the inflationary scenarios, and their consequences for the critical density of the observable universe. The role of the Casimir effect as a possible mechanism for dimensional compactification is noted, and the absence of the Casimir effect for supersymmetric theories is noted.

• Research Organization: State Univ. of New York, Stony Brook, NY (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5075000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640106 -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Cosmology
645200* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BOSONS
CASIMIR EFFECT
COMPACTIFICATION
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
COSMOLOGY
DENSITY
DRELL MODEL
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FIELD EQUATIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GLUONS
HADRONS
HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INTERACTIONS
KALUZA-KLEIN THEORY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATTER
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTONS
PERTURBATION THEORY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUARK MATTER
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES