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Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: See full text for the abstract / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sien volteks vir die opsomming

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A minimum-norm method has been developed for solving the coupled integro-differential equations describing the scattering of positrons by one-electron targets in which the rearrangement channels for positronium formation have been explicitly included. The minimum-norm method, applied to this application for the first time in this thesis, is an enhancement of a previously reported least-squares method which has enabled the extension to a significantly larger basis consisting of up to 26 states on the direct centre, including pseudostates, and 3 states on the positronium. The method has been applied here to e+-H and e+-He+ scattering; cross-sections have been produced for the latter over a range of energies up to 250 eV. The basis was found to be large enough to produce smooth cross sections and little evidence of pseudoresonance structure was found. The results are the first converged cross sections to be calculated for e+-He+ scattering using the coupled channel approximation. Results for e+-H scattering compare well with the work of other authors. A highly efficient parallel code was developed for solving the largest coupling cases. The results prove the minimum-norm approach to be an accurate and reliable method for large-scale coupled channel calculations involving rearrangement collisions. Also in this thesis, the capture of slow antiprotons by atomic hydrogen and positronium has been simulated by the Classical Trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method. Statistically accurate cross sections for protonium and antihydrogen formation have been obtained and the energy dependence of the process established. Antihydrogen formation from antiproton collisions with positronium in the presence of a laser has also been simulated with the CTMC method and the effects of laser polarisation, frequency and intensity studied. Enhancements of the antihydrogen formation cross section were observed and it is suggested that more sophisticated calculations should be undertaken

<p>Heavy flavor hadrons serve as valuable probes of the transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this dissertation, we introduce a comprehensive framework that describes the full-time evolution of heavy flavor in heavy-ion collisions, including its initial production, in-medium evolution inside the QGP matter, hadronization process from heavy quarks to their respective mesonic bound states and the subsequent interactions between heavy mesons and the hadron gas.</p><p>The in-medium energy loss of heavy quarks is studied within the framework of a Langevin equation coupled to hydrodynamic models that simulate the space-time evolution of the hot and dense QGP matter. We improve the classical Langevin approach such that, apart from quasi-elastic scatterings between heavy quarks and the medium background, radiative energy loss is incorporated as well by treating gluon radiation as a recoil force term. The subsequent hadronization of emitted heavy quarks is simulated via a hybrid fragmentation plus recombination model. The propagation of produced heavy mesons in the hadronic phase is described using the ultra-relativistic quantum molecular dynamics (UrQMD) model. Our calculation shows that while collisional energy loss dominates the heavy quark motion inside the QGP in the low transverse momentum (pT) regime, contributions from gluon radiation are found to be significant at high pT. The recombination mechanism is important for the heavy flavor meson production at intermediate energies. The hadronic final state interactions further enhance the suppression and the collective flow of heavy mesons we observe. Within our newly developed framework, we present numerical results for the nuclear modification and the elliptic flow of D mesons, which are consistent with measurements at both the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC); predictions for B mesons are also provided.</p><p>In addition, various transport properties of heavy quarks are investigated within our numerical framework, such as the thermalization process of heavy quarks inside the QGP, and how the initial configuration of the QGP as well as its properties affect the final state spectra and the elliptic flow of heavy mesons and their decay electrons. The effects of initial state fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions are also studied and found to enhance the heavy quark energy loss in a (2+1)-dimensional boost invariant scenario. Furthermore, a new set of observables -- heavy-flavor-tagged angular correlation functions -- are explored and found to be potential candidates for distinguishing different energy loss mechanisms of heavy quarks inside the QGP.</p> / Dissertation

O Plasma de Quarks e Glúons (Quark Gluon Plasma ou QGP) criado de forma sistemática em grandes aceleradores de partículas que envolvem colaborações do mundo inteiro, apesar de ter sua descoberta anunciada há bastante tempo ainda apresenta desafios e questões a serem respondidas tanto do ponto de vista experimental como do teórico. O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar a conexão entre as condições iniciais da expansão do QGP (que dependem da interação forte e não são acessíveis ao experimento) com a anisotropia da emissão azimutal das partículas (que por sua vez reflete as condições iniciais e é medida experimentalmente). O modelo hidrodinâmico é descrito inicialmente, com ênfase no programa NeXSPheRIO. Também são apresentadas alguns tipos de observáveis e modelos de condições iniciais (NeXus, MC-KLN e TRENTO). Por fim resultados de simulações para distribuições evento-por-evento do fluxo anisotrópico (facilmente ligadas aos modelos de condições iniciais) são comparadas com dados do LHC e previsões são feitas para a energia mais alta do RHIC. Estas previsões são testadas via a razão $v_2\\{4\\}/v_2\\{2\\}$ para a qual dados existem. / The Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), created in a systematic way in large particle accelerators which are built by worldwide collaborations, even though its discovery being announced a long time ago it still presents us with challenges and questions to be answered even from the experimental point of view to the theoretical one. The main goal of this work is to study the connection between the initial conditions for the QGP expansion (which depend on strong interactions and are not accesible to the experiments) to the anisotropy in the azimuthal particle emission (which in turn reflects the initial conditions and is measured experimentally). The hydrodynamical model is described initially, with emphasis on the code NeXSPheRIO. Additionally some types of observables and initial condition models (NeXus, MC-KLN and TRENTO) are presented. And at last, results from simulations for event-by-event distributions for the anisotropic flow (easily connected to the initial conditions models) are compared with LHC\'s data and predictions are made for the RHIC\'s top energy. These predictions are tested by the $v_2\\{4\\}/v_2\\{2\\}$ for which data exists.

O Plasma de Quarks e Glúons (Qgp), um meio denso e quente, pode ser produzido em laboratório a partir da colisão entre íons pesados relativísticos. Pode-se estudá-lo a partir da comparação entre jatos reconstruídos em tais eventos e aqueles reconstruídos em colisões próton-próton, uma vez que se espera que os pártons ao atravessarem o Qgp percam energia em função da interação com o meio, o chamado jet quenching. Este trabalho propõe dois novos observáveis no estudo de jatos reconstruídos em colisões entre íons pesados relativísticos: o espectro de jatos quasi-inclusivo e a evolução do espectro de jatos de recuo em função da partícula trigger. Mostra-se que conhecida a função de resolução do momento reconstruído do jato é possível obter o espectro verdadeiro desses observáveis a partir da técnica de deconvolução bayesiana iterativa. A técnica proposta é empregada em eventos de colisões núcleonúcleo realizadas nos aceleradores Rhic e Lhc cujos dados foram coletados pelas colaborações Star e Alice, respectivamente. Os resultados evidenciam a ocorrência do fenômeno de jet queching independentemente do sistema, da energia e da centralidade da colisão em um grande intervalo cinemático. / The Quark-Gluon Plasma (Qgp), a hot and dense medium, can be produced in laboratory by colliding relativistic heavy ion. This medium can be studied by the comparison of jets reconstructed in such events and those reconstructed in proton-proton collisions, once it is expected that partons lose energy when traversing the Qgp due to its interaction with the medium, the so-called jet quenching. This work proposes two new observables: the quasiinclusive jet spectrum and the evolution of the recoil jet spectrum as function of the trigger particle. It is shown that it is possible to obtain those spectra using iterative bayesian unfolding, which requires the resolution function for the reconstructed jet transverse momentum. This technique is applied to Star and Alice data which has been taken at Rhic and Lhc, respectively. The results indicate that jet quenching occurs in a very wide kinematic range, regardless the colliding system, its energy and centrality.