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# Thermal and chemical equilibration of hadronic matter Work supported by BMBF, GSI Darmstadt and DFG.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Nucleus-nucleus collisions at relativistic and ultrarelativistic energies are studied experimentally and theoretically to obtain information about the properties of hadrons at high density and/or temperature as well as about the phase transition to a new state of matter, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). In the latter deconfined partons are the essential degrees of freedom that resolve the underlying structure of hadrons . Whereas the early ’big-bang’ of the universe most likely evolved through steps of kinetic and chemical equilibrium, the laboratory ’tiny bangs’ proceed through phase-space configurations that initially are far from an equilibrium phase and then evolve by fast expansion. These ’specific initial conditions’ – on the theoretical side – have lead to a rapid development of nonequilibrium quantum field theory and nonequilibribrium kinetic theory . Presently, semiclassical transport models are widely used as approximate solutions to these theories and practically are an essential ingredient in the experimental data analysis. For recent reviews we refer the reader to Refs. .

On the other hand, many observables from strongly interacting systems are dominated by many-body phase space such that spectra and abundances look ’thermal’. It is thus tempting to characterize the experimental observables by global thermodynamical quantities like ’temperature’, chemical potentials or entropy . We note, that even the use of macroscopic models like hydrodynamics  employs as basic assumption the concept of local thermal and chemical equilibrium. The crucial question, however, how and on what timescales a global thermodynamic equilibrium can be achieved, is presently a matter of debate. Thus nonequilibrium approaches have been used in the past to address the problem of timescales associated to global or local equilibration . In view of the increasing ’popularity’ of thermodynamic analyses a thorough microscopic reanalysis of this questions appears necessary especially for nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultrarelativistic energies that aim at ’detecting’ a phase transition to the QGP.

In this contribution we discuss equilibration phenomena in ’infinite’ hadronic matter using a microscopic transport model that contains both hadron resonance and string degrees-of-freedom. With this investigation we want to provide insight into the reaction dynamics by the use of cascade-like models and also point out some of their limitations. The ’infinite’ hadronic matter is modelled by initializing the system solely by nucleonic degrees of freedom through a fixed baryon density and energy density, while confining it to a cubic box and imposing periodic boundary conditions during the propagation in time.

## 2 EQUILIBRATION AND LIMITING TEMPERATURE

To investigate the equilibration phenomena addressed above we perform microscopic calculations using the Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) model of Refs. . This model is based on the resonance concept of nucleon-nucleon and meson-nucleon interactions at low invariant energy $`\sqrt{s}`$ , adopting all resonance parameters from the Manley analysis . The high energy collisions – above $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 2.6 GeV for baryon-baryon collisions and $`\sqrt{s}`$ = 2.2 GeV for meson-baryon collisions – are described by the LUND string fragmentation model FRITIOF . This aspect is similar to that used in the HSD approach  and the UrQMD code . For a detailed description of the underlying model at low energy we refer the reader to Ref. .

### 2.1 A box with periodic boundary conditions

In order to study ’infinite’ hadronic matter problems we confine the particles in a cubic box with periodic boundary conditions for their propagation similar to a recent box calculation within the UrQMD model . We specify the initial conditions, i.e. baryon density $`\rho `$, strange particle density $`\rho _S`$ and energy density $`\epsilon `$ as follows: first the initial system is fixed to $`N_p=80`$ protons and $`N_n=80`$ neutrons, which are randomly distributed in a cubic box of volume $`V`$. The 3-momenta $`\stackrel{}{p}_i`$ of the nucleons in a first step are randomly distributed inside a Fermi-sphere of radius $`p_F`$ = 0.26 GeV/c (at $`\rho _0`$) and in a second step boosted by $`\pm \beta _{cm}`$ by a proper Lorentz transformation. Thus the initial baryon density $`\rho `$ is fixed as $`\rho =A/V`$, $`A=N_p+N_n`$. The strange particle density is set to zero as in related heavy-ion experiments while the energy density is defined as $`\epsilon =E/V`$, where $`E`$ is the total energy of all nucleons

$`E={\displaystyle \underset{i}{\overset{A}{}}}\sqrt{p_i^2+m_N^2}.`$ (1)
The boost velocity $`\beta _{cm}`$ is related to the initial energy density $`\epsilon `$ (excluding Fermi motion) as

$`\beta _{cm}=\sqrt{1{\displaystyle \frac{\rho ^2m_N^2}{\epsilon ^2}}}`$ (2)
using $`\epsilon =\gamma _{cm}\rho m_N`$ with $`\gamma _{cm}=1/\sqrt{1\beta _{cm}^2}`$. Recall that $`\rho _0m_N0.15`$ GeV/fm3 so that an energy density $`\epsilon 1.5`$ GeV/fm3 at density $`\rho _0`$ corresponds to $`\gamma _{cm}10`$, i.e. the SPS energy $`T_{lab}185`$ A$``$GeV. We thus start with a ’true’ nonequilibrium situation in order to mimique the initial stage in a relativistic heavy-ion collision. The initial phase represents two interpenetrating, (ideally) infinitely extended fluids of cold nuclear matter.

We now propagate all particles in the box in the cascade mode (without mean-field potentials) using periodic boundary conditions, i.e. particles moving out of the box are reinserted at the opposite side with the same momentum. The phase-space distribution of particles then can change due to elastic collisions, resonance and string production and their decays to mesons and baryons again. We recall that we include all baryon resonances up to an invariant mass of 2 GeV and meson resonances up to the $`\varphi `$-meson. According to the initial conditions for $`\epsilon `$ and $`\rho `$ the factor $`\gamma _{cm}`$ determines if strings are excited in the very first collisions. This is the case for $`\gamma _{cm}>1.4`$ where the early equlibration stages are dominated by string formation and decay.

### 2.2 Chemical equilibration

Figure 1 shows the time evolution of the various particle abundances (nucleons $`N`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$, $`\pi `$ and $`K^+`$ mesons) for density $`\rho =\rho _0`$ (left panel) at energy density $`\epsilon =0.22`$ GeV/fm3 and for $`\rho =3\rho _0`$ (right panel) at $`\epsilon =0.66`$ GeV/fm3. These initial conditions correspond to bombarding energy $`T_{lab}`$ per nucleon of roughly 2 A$``$GeV. In Fig. 1 we count all particles which are ’hadronized’, i.e. produced by string decay after a formation time of $`\tau _F=0.8`$ fm/c in their rest frame.

After several fm/c the number of nucleons decreases due to inelastic collisions that produce either baryon resonances or additional mesons. The number of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$-resonances grows up to a maximum in a few fm/c, since a lot of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$’s are produced in the first $`NN`$ collisions; their number subsequently decreases with time due to their decay and excitation of further resonances or due to reabsorption. The numbers of $`\pi `$’s and $`\eta `$’s increase very fast and reach the equilibrium value within a few fm/c whereas the strange particles ($`K^+,K^{},\mathrm{\Lambda }`$) require a much longer time for equilibration.

For the higher energies the initial particle production proceeds via the formation and decay of string excitations. This leads in particular to a very early onset of strange particles (mainly kaons and hyperons) within the first fm/c either due to the initial strings or due to secondary or ternary baryon-baryon, meson-baryon and meson-meson induced string-like interactions. In Ref.  it was shown that these early secondary and ternary reactions can contribute up to about 50 $`\%`$ of the total strange particles obtained in a Pb + Pb reaction at CERN SPS energies and thus explain the factor of 2 in the observed relative strangeness enhancement compared to p+p reactions. This, however, does not imply that chemical equilibrium for the dominant strange particles has been achieved in this reaction, as our analysis clearly shows. In the later stages, when the system has become, more or less, isotropic in momentum space, strange particles can only be further produced by low energy hadronic reactions, which, however, have a considerable threshold and are thus strongly suppressed. This explains the long chemical equilibration times for the strange particles first demonstrated by Koch, Müller and Rafelski .

In order to define an overall chemical equilibration time we perform a fit to the particle abundances $`N(t)`$ for pions and kaons as

$`N(t)=N_{eq}\left(1\mathrm{exp}(t/\tau _{eq})\right),`$ (3)
where $`N_{eq}`$ is the equilibrium limit. The equilibration time $`\tau _{eq}`$ thus corresponds to the time $`t`$ when $`63`$% of $`N_{eq}`$ is achieved.

Figure 2 shows the equilibration time $`\tau _{eq}`$ versus energy density for $`\pi `$ and $`K^+`$ mesons at different baryon densities of $`1/3\rho _0,\rho _0,3\rho _0`$ and $`6\rho _0`$. We find that the equilibration time for pions scales as $`\tau _{eq}^\pi 1/\rho `$ or $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_\pi \rho `$, thus we present the curve only for baryon density $`\rho _0`$. Whereas $`\tau _{eq}^\pi `$ slowly grows with energy-density, $`\tau _{eq}^K`$ falls steeply with $`\epsilon `$. This marked difference is due to the fact that, on one hand, the kaon production rate increases dramatically with $`\sqrt{s}`$ whereas that of the pions, on the other hand, is more flat. With increasing energy thus more strange particles are produced through strings especially from the primary collisions with high $`\sqrt{s}`$ and the chemical equilibration is achieved faster.

In Fig. 2 we have considered an ’ideal’ situation, i.e. hadron matter at fixed energy and baryon density. In realistic heavy-ion collisions the system goes through the different stages due to interactions and expansion. However, as follows from Fig. 2, the equilibration time for strangeness is larger than 40 fm/c for all energy and baryon densities. Thus in realistic nucleus-nucleus collisions the chemical equilibration of strange particles requires also a time above 40 fm/c which is considerably larger than the actual reaction time of a few 10 fm/c or less .

The particle abundances used to extract $`\tau _{eq}`$ in Fig. 2 have been calculated without any in-medium potentials. In fact, the introduction of attractive potentials (especially for $`K^{}`$) will lower the hadronic thresholds and thus increase the scattering rate between strange and nonstrange hadrons, whereas the $`K^+`$ feels some repulsive potential and the trend goes in the opposite way. According to our calculations such in-medium modifications (in line with Ref. ) give a correction to the $`K^+`$ equilibration times by atmost 10 % and shortens the $`K^{}`$ equilibration times up to 20 % at density $`\rho _0`$.

### 2.3 Thermal equilibration and limiting temperature

In this subsection we investigate the approach to thermal equilibration. For the equilibrated system we can extract a temperature $`T`$ by fitting the particle spectra with the Boltzmann distribution

$`{\displaystyle \frac{d^3N_i}{dp^3}}\mathrm{exp}(E_i/T),`$ (4)
where $`E_i=\sqrt{p_i^2+m_i^2}`$ is the energy of particle $`i`$. We note that at the temperatures of interest here, the Bose and Fermi distributions are practically identical to a Boltzmann distribution. We find that in equilibrium the spectra of all particles can be characterized by one single temperature $`T`$ .

In the left panel of Fig. 3 we display the temperature $`T`$ versus energy density $`\epsilon `$ for different baryon densities $`\rho `$: $`1/3\rho _0`$ (open down triangles), $`\rho _0`$ (full squares), $`3\rho _0`$ (full dots), $`6\rho _0`$ (full up triangles). In order to compare calculations for different baryon densities we have subtracted the baryon energy density at rest, i.e. $`m_N\rho `$ (except for Fermi motion). As seen from Fig. 3 the temperature grows with energy density up to a limiting value reminiscent of a ’Hagedorn’ temperature . From our detailed investigations we obtain for the limiting temperature $`T_s150\pm 5`$ MeV which practically does not depend on baryon density. Such a singular behavior of $`\epsilon (T)`$ for $`TT_s`$ has also been found in the box calculations in Ref.  for $`\rho =\rho _0`$. Our limiting temperature is slightly higher than that in Ref.  ($`T_s=130\pm 10`$ MeV) due to the different number of degrees of freedom; the model  contains more resonances and uses a different threshold for string excitations. Thus, there is some phenomenological sensitivity to the hadronic zoo of particles and string thresholds employed in the model.

In order to investigate the equilibrium behavior of hadron matter we also compare our transport (box) calculations with a simple Statistical Model (SM) for an Ideal Hadron Gas where the system is described by a grand canonical ensemble of non-interacting fermions and bosons in equilibrium at temperature $`T`$. All baryon and meson species considered in the transport model  also have been included in the statistical model .

Within the SM we find that the temperature increases continuously with energy density since the continuum excitations, i.e. the string degrees of freedom, are not included (full dots in the right panel of Fig. 3), whereas the box calculation with strings gives the limiting temperature (full squares in Fig. 3). Both curves in Fig. 3 have been calculated for density $`\rho _0`$.

To reproduce qualitatively our box result within the SM we have to include continuum excitations in the statistical model, i.e. a Hagedorn mass spectrum for strings  (for details see ). For the ’Hagedorn’ temperature $`T_H`$ we use the temperature $`T_s`$ as obtained from the box calculations, i.e. $`T_H=T_s150`$ MeV. As seen in right panel of Fig. 3 we achieve agreement of the extended SM and our box calculations. However, we point out that the limiting temperature $`T_s`$ from our string model involves somewhat different physics assumptions than the Hagedorn model at temperature $`T_H`$. $`T_s`$ should not really be identified with the ’Hagedorn’ temperature $`T_H`$, though close similarities exist. In the Hagedorn picture and for temperatures close to $`T_H`$ the abundance of ‘normal’ hadrons or known resonances stays constant with increasing energy density whereas the number and energy density of the (hypothetical) bootstrap excitations diverges for $`TT_H`$. The Hagedorn model thus assumes ‘particles’ of mass $`m\mathrm{}`$ to be populated for $`TT_H`$, that dynamically can be formed in collisions of high mass hadrons for $`t\mathrm{}`$. In contrast, our string model does not include energetic string-string interactions that might produce more massive strings.

## 3 SUMMARY

In this contribution we have performed a systematic study of equilibration phenomena and equilibrium properties of ’infinite’ hadronic matter as well as of relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions using a BUU transport model that contains resonance and string degrees-of-freedom. The ’infinite’ hadron matter is modelled by initializing the system at fixed baryon density, strange density and energy density by confining it in a cubic box with periodic boundary conditions .

We have shown that the equilibration times $`\tau _{eq}`$ for different particles depend on baryon density and energy density. The time $`\tau _{eq}`$ for non-strange particles is much shorter than for particles including strangeness; for kaons and antikaons the equilibration time is found to be larger than $``$ 40 fm/c for all baryon and energy densities considered. The overall abundance of the dominant strange particles (kaons and $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$’s) being produced and obtained within the BUU cascade model for heavy-ion collisions can therefore not be described by assuming a perfect chemical equilibrium as strangeness is typically still undersaturated to a quite large extent. We mention that transport model calculations like ours can describe the yield and spectra of the produced nonstrange hadrons as well as $`K^+,K^{},\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ yields quite well at SPS energies . On the other hand, at AGS energies the measured $`K^+/\pi ^+`$ ratio in central Au + Au collisions is underestimated by about 30% . However, we have to point out that the more exotic strange particles (like the measured antihyperon yields of Ref. ) can by far not be explained within such standard hadronic multiple channel reactions. These hadronic data possibly point towards new physics.

We have, furthermore, shown that thermal equilibrium is established quickly, within about 5 fm/c at SIS energies and samewhat larger times at high energies. The inclusion of continuum excitations, i.e. hadron ’strings’, leads to a limiting temperature of $`T_s150`$ MeV in our transport approach which practically does not depend on the baryon density and energy. We have compared our results with the statistical model (SM), which contains the same degrees of freedom and the same spectral functions of particles as our transport model. We found that the limiting temperature behaviour can be reproduced in the statistical model only after including continuum excitations of the Hagedorn type, otherwise the fireball temperature extracted from the particle abundances and spectra is overestimated substantially.

Close to the critical temperature $`T_s`$, the hadronic energy densities can increase to a couple of GeV/fm3. From lattice QCD calculations one expects that a phase transition to a potentially deconfined QGP state should occur. Referring to the limiting temperature $`T_s150`$ MeV obtained, a QGP should be revealed and clearly distinguished from a hadronic state of matter if one can unambiguously prove the existence of an equilibrated and thermal phase of strongly interacting matter with temperatures exceeding, e.g., 200 MeV. The best candidates are electromagnetic probes, either direct photons or dileptons. On the other hand these are also ‘contaminated’ by hadronic background and/or preequilibrium physics. So far no thermal electromagnetic source with temperatures larger or equal than 200 MeV has been clearly identified. This might happen at RHIC energies in central Au + Au collisions which are expected to be studied soon.


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# A NOTE ON 3+1 DIMENSIONALITY

## Abstract

Recent work by Castro, Granik and El Naschie has given a rationale for the three dimensionality of our physical space within the framework of cantorian fractal space time using similar ideas of quantized fractal space time and noncommutativity. We also deduce the same result. Interestingly this is also seen to provide a rationale for an unproven conjecture of Poincare.

00footnotetext: E-mail:birlasc@hd1.vsnl.net.in;Fax:0091-40-237266;Tel:0091-40-235081

In a recent paper, Castro, Granik and El Naschie have given a rationale for the three dimensionality of our physical space within the framework of a Cantorian fractal space time and El Naschie’s earlier work thereon. An ensemble is used and the value for the average dimension involving the golden mean is deduced close to the value of our $`3+1`$ dimensions. We now make a few remarks based on an approach which is in the spirit of the above considerations.
Our starting point is the fact that the fractal dimension of a quantum path is two, which, it has been argued is described by the coordinates $`(x,ict)`$. Infact this leads to discretized space time, and a non commutative geometry as in the approach of El Naschie, Castro and Granik, and further the Dirac equation of the spin half electron is seen to emerge from these considerations. Given the spin half, it is then possible to deduce the dimensionality of an ensemble of such particles, which turns out to be three.
There is another way of looking at this. If we generalise from the one space dimensional case and the complex $`(x,t)`$ plane to three dimensions, we infact obtain the four dimensional case and the Theory of Quarternions, which are based on the Pauli Spin Matrices. As has been noted by Sachs, had Hamilton identified the fourth coordinate in the above generalisation with time, then he would have anticipated Special Relativity itself. It must be observed that the Pauli Spin Matrices which denote the Quantum Mechanical spin half form, again, a non commutative structure.
Curiously enough the above consideration in the complex plane can have an interesting connection with an unproven nearly hundred year old conjecture of Poincare. This was, the fact that closed loops could be shrunk to points as happens on the two dimensional surface of a sphere is also valid in three dimensions. Such closed loops defining a simply connected space are described by closed contours in complex space which have an integral value for the index. For the surface of the sphere the axes are replaced by great circles and the coordinates by the longitude and latitude. If we now generalise to three dimensions, we end up instead with the above four dimensional Quarternion theory of Hamilton - the three dimensional case is not possible. We have instead three space dimensions, and a fourth dimension, which as seen above can also be recovered from the doubly connected or spinorial behaviour. Interestingly this also provides a rationale for Poincare’s conjecture not being provable.


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# Electroweak Precision Physics at 𝐞⁺𝐞⁻ Colliders with RacoonWW

## Introduction

The precise measurements of the W-boson mass and the W-pair production cross sections as well as the direct observation of triple-gauge-boson couplings dw:lep2exp  at LEP2 provide further important precision tests of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. To match the experimental accuracy at LEP2 and at a future linear collider (LC), the knowledge of the observed cross sections beyond leading order in perturbation theory is crucial dw:wwrev ; dw:lep2rep ; dw:lep2mcws . For instance, at LEP2 the total W-pair production cross sections need to be known theoretically to better than $`1\%`$ dw:lep2mcws , which requires to go even beyond universal radiative corrections such as the running of the electromagnetic coupling, corrections connected to the $`\rho `$ parameter, the Coulomb singularity, and leading photonic corrections.

The full treatment of the processes $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}4f`$ at the one-loop level is of enormous complexity dw:Vi98  and poses severe gauge-invariance problems when introducing the finite W-boson width. Fortunately, for W-pair production at LEP2 and at not too high LC Center-of-Mass (CM) energies 111Above 0.5–$`1`$TeV at least the leading electroweak logarithms at the two-loop level should be taken into account., it is sufficient for the envisioned theoretical precision to take into account only radiative corrections to those contributions that are enhanced by two resonant W propagators. The use of this so-called double-pole approximation (DPA) for the calculation of the pair production of unstable particles has been proposed in dw:Ae94 . Recently different versions of the DPA for the calculation of radiative corrections to off-shell W-pair production have been described in the literature dw:Be98 ; dw:yfsww ; dw:yfswwnew ; dw:ku99 ; dw:paper ; dw:lep2 .

Here we present results of the first complete calculation of the $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections for off-shell W-pair production in the DPA that has been implemented in a Monte Carlo (MC) generator. The resulting MC program is called RacoonWW, and numerical results for the W-pair production cross sections and various distributions at LEP2 and LC CM energies are provided in dw:lep2mcws ; dw:paper ; dw:lep2  and dw:nlc , respectively. In dw:paper  we also presented a detailed description of the RacoonWW approach, discussed the intrinsic theoretical uncertainty of our version of the DPA, and compared our results with existing calculations (see alsodw:lep2mcws ).

In the following sections we give a brief overview of the RacoonWW approach and provide numerical results for the total W-pair production cross sections, angular and W-invariant-mass distributions at the typical LEP2 and LC CM energies $`\sqrt{s}=200`$GeV and 500 GeV, respectively. For the same setup as described in dw:lep2mcws , we also present a comparison of RacoonWW results with the results of the Monte Carlo generator YFSWW3 dw:yfsww ; dw:yfswwnew  at $`\sqrt{s}=500`$GeV.

## The RacoonWW Approach

The radiative corrections to the processes $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{WW}4f`$ consist of virtual corrections as well as of real corrections originating from the processes $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{WW}4f+\gamma `$. In RacoonWW only the virtual one-loop corrections are treated in DPA, including the full set of factorizable and non-factorizable $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections to $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{WW}4f`$ for massless fermions. The factorizable contributions comprise those virtual one-loop corrections that can either be assigned to the W-pair production or to the W-decay subprocesses. The corresponding matrix element in DPA

$$_{\mathrm{DPA}}^{\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{WW}4f}=\frac{R(k_{\mathrm{W}^+}^2=M_\mathrm{W}^2,k_\mathrm{W}^{}^2=M_\mathrm{W}^2)}{(k_{\mathrm{W}^+}^2M^2)(k_\mathrm{W}^{}^2M^2)}$$
(1)
is defined by the gauge-invariant residue $`R(M_\mathrm{W}^2,M_\mathrm{W}^2)`$ and the W propagators with complex poles at $`M^2=M_\mathrm{W}^2\mathrm{i}M_\mathrm{W}\mathrm{\Gamma }_W`$. The one-loop corrections to this residue can be deduced from the known results for on-shell W-pair production dw:prod  and W decay dw:wdec . The non-factorizable corrections dw:nonf  connect the production and decay processes. In DPA, they comprise all doubly-resonant contributions that are not already included in the factorizable corrections. Only those diagrams contribute where a photon with energy $`E_\gamma \stackrel{<}{}\mathrm{\Gamma }_W`$ is exchanged between the production and decay subprocesses; all other non-factorizable diagrams are negligible in DPA. A typical diagram contributing to the non-factorizable corrections is shown in Fig. 1.

The calculation of the real $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections is based on the full lowest-order matrix element to $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}4f+\gamma `$ for massless fermions as described in dw:photon . In this way, we avoid potential problems with a definition of a DPA for real photons with energies $`E_\gamma \mathrm{\Gamma }_W`$. However, since we treat virtual and real photons differently, the former in DPA but the latter completely, a careful matching of the arising infrared (IR) and collinear singularities is needed: first the singularities are extracted from the real photon contribution by using either a subtraction dw:subtraction  or the phase-space-slicing method. Both methods are implemented in RacoonWW. As usual, these IR- and collinear-singular contributions factorize into the Born cross section and a factor containing the IR- and collinear-singular logarithms, where the dependence on the photon phase space has been partially integrated out analytically. The remaining part of the real corrections is free of singularities and can be evaluated with the usual MC techniques. Then, we extract those singular parts from the IR- and collinear-singular contributions that exactly match the singular parts of the virtual corrections, replace the full Born cross section by the DPA Born cross section, and add this modified part to the virtual corrections. This modification only introduces ambiguities that are smaller than the accuracy of the DPA and leads to a proper matching of IR and collinear singularities.

Beyond $`𝒪(\alpha )`$, RacoonWW includes soft-photon exponentiation and leading higher-order initial-state radiation (ISR) up to $`𝒪(\alpha ^3)`$ via the structure-function approach (see e.g. dw:lep2rep  and references therein). Also the leading-order effects from $`\mathrm{\Delta }\rho `$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }\alpha `$ are taken into account by using the $`G_\mu `$ scheme.

By default, QCD corrections are taken into account by considering a multiplicative factor $`(1+\alpha _\mathrm{s}/\pi )`$ for each hadronically decaying W boson. This affects the W-decay width in the W propagators and the amplitudes to $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}4f`$ for quarks in the final state when the full phase space for gluons is integrated over. In the total cross section these so-called “naive” QCD factors cancel. If the gluon phase space is not integrated over, the virtual and real QCD corrections to $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}4f`$ have to be calculated, which is technically similar to the calculation of the photonic corrections. This option is also supported by RacoonWW.

## Numerical Results

For the numerical results we use the following parameters:

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}\hfill G_\mu & =& 1.16637\times 10^5\mathrm{GeV}^2,\hfill & \hfill \alpha & =& 1/137.0359895,\hfill \\ \hfill M_\mathrm{W}& =& 80.35\mathrm{GeV},\hfill & \hfill \mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{W}& =& 2.08699\mathrm{}\mathrm{GeV},\hfill \\ \hfill M_\mathrm{Z}& =& 91.1867\mathrm{GeV},\hfill & \hfill \mathrm{\Gamma }_\mathrm{Z}& =& 2.49471\mathrm{GeV},\hfill \\ \hfill m_\mathrm{t}& =& 174.17\mathrm{GeV},\hfill & \hfill M_\mathrm{H}& =& 150\mathrm{GeV},\hfill \\ \hfill m_\mathrm{e}& =& 510.99907\mathrm{keV},\hfill & \hfill \alpha _\mathrm{s}& =& 0.119.\hfill \end{array}$$
(2)
We work in the fixed-width scheme and fix the weak mixing angle by using $`c_\mathrm{w}=M_\mathrm{W}/M_\mathrm{Z}`$, $`s_\mathrm{w}^2=1c_\mathrm{w}^2`$. These parameters are over-complete but self-consistent. Instead of $`\alpha `$ we use $`G_\mu `$ to parametrize the lowest-order matrix element, i.e. we use the effective coupling

$$\alpha _{G_\mu }=\frac{\sqrt{2}G_\mu M_\mathrm{W}^2s_\mathrm{w}^2}{\pi }$$
(3)
in the lowest-order matrix element. This parameterization has the advantage that all higher-order contributions associated with the running of the electromagnetic coupling from $`q^2=0`$ to $`q^2=M_\mathrm{W}^2`$ and the leading universal two-loop $`m_\mathrm{t}`$-dependent corrections are already absorbed in the Born cross section. In the relative $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections, on the other hand, we use $`\alpha =\alpha (0)`$, since in the real corrections, which yield the bulk of the remaining corrections, the scale of the real photon is zero. The W-boson width given above is calculated including the electroweak and QCD one-loop corrections.

In the following, for the lowest-order contributions only the CC03 diagrams are taken into account. Our “best” results comprise the CC03 Born cross sections and the corrected cross sections including all the radiative corrections briefly described in the previous section (more details can be found in dw:paper ), i.e. the electroweak one-loop corrections in DPA, the exact $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ photon radiation based on the full matrix element for $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}4f\gamma `$, higher-order ISR up to $`𝒪(\alpha ^3)`$, and “naive” QCD $`𝒪(\alpha _\mathrm{s})`$ corrections.

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the results of RacoonWW for the total CC03 W-pair production cross section (see also dw:lep2mcws ) and of other Monte Carlo predictions with recent LEP2 data, as given by the LEP Electroweak Working Group dw:LEPEWWG  for the Winter 2000 conferences.

The data are in good agreement with the predictions of RacoonWW and YFSWW3 dw:yfsww ; dw:yfswwnew . At the time of the conferences in Winter 2000 the predictions of YFSWW3 were about $`0.5`$$`0.7\%`$ larger than those of RacoonWW, which is somewhat larger than the intrinsic DPA ambiguity. Meanwhile, however, the main source of this discrepancy was found dw:lep2mcws , and the new YFSWW3 dw:yfswwnew  results differ from the ones of RacoonWW only by about $`0.3\%`$ at LEP2 CM energies. More details on the conceptual differences of the two generators, as well as a detailed comparison of numerical results for LEP2 energies, can be found in dw:lep2mcws  and below. Figure 2 also includes the prediction provided by GENTLE dw:gentle , which is 2–2.5% larger than those from RacoonWW and YFSWW3. This difference is due to the neglect of non-leading, non-universal $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections in GENTLE. In summary, the comparison between SM predictions and LEP2 data reveals evidence of non-leading electroweak radiative corrections beyond the level of universal effects.

In the following we study the impact of the radiative corrections on the W-invariant-mass distributions and angular distributions and use the separation and recombination cuts of dw:lep2mcws ; dw:paper :

1. All photons within a cone of 5 degrees around the beams are treated as invisible, i.e. their momenta are disregarded when calculating angles, energies, and invariant masses.
2. Next, the invariant masses $`M_{f\gamma }`$ of the photon with each of the charged final-state fermions are calculated. If the smallest one is smaller than a certain cutoff $`M_{\mathrm{rec}}`$ or if the energy of the photon is smaller than 1 GeV, the photon is combined with the charged final-state fermion that leads to the smallest $`M_{f\gamma }`$, i.e. the momenta of the photon and the fermion are added and associated with the momentum of the fermion, and the photon is discarded.
3. Finally, all events are discarded in which one of the charged final-state fermions is within a cone of 10 degrees around the beams. No other cuts are applied.

We consider two recombination cuts: $`M_{\mathrm{r}ec}=5`$GeV (bare) and $`M_{\mathrm{r}ec}=25`$GeV (calo).

As mentioned before, RacoonWW contains two branches for the treatment of IR and collinear singularities, one following the subtraction method of dw:subtraction  and one the phase-space-slicing method. While these two branches use the same matrix elements, the Monte Carlo integration is performed completely independently, thus providing us with a powerful numerical check of RacoonWW. In the following we present numerical results of both branches of RacoonWW. In Table 1 we provide the CC03 Born and “best” results for the total W-pair production cross sections for the semileptonic process $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{u}\overline{\mathrm{d}}\mu ^{}\overline{\nu }_\mu (\gamma )`$ at the CM energies $`\sqrt{s}=200`$GeV and 500 GeV with the bare or calo cuts applied. The results obtained when using the phase-space-slicing method agree well with those of the subtraction method, i.e. within the statistical errors of $`0.05`$$`0.09\%`$.

In Figs. 3, 4, and 5 we show the relative corrections $`\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}1`$ (in per cent), where $`\mathrm{d}\sigma _{\mathrm{Born}}`$ and $`\mathrm{d}\sigma `$ denote the CC03 Born and “best” predictions, respectively, for a variety of distributions for $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{u}\overline{\mathrm{d}}\mu ^{}\overline{\nu }_\mu (\gamma )`$ at the LEP2 CM energy $`\sqrt{s}=`$200 GeV.

The relative corrections to the W-invariant-mass distributions are shown in Figs. 3 and 4 for the bare and calo recombination cuts. The invariant masses are obtained from the four-momenta of the decay fermions of the W bosons after eventual recombination with the photon four-momentum. They are particularly sensitive to the treatment of the photons, and thus a strong dependence of the relative corrections on the recombination cut can be observed. The observed distortion of the W-invariant-mass distributions is of particular interest when the W-boson mass is reconstructed from the W-decay products. A detailed discussion of the distortion of the invariant-mass distributions of the W bosons and their origin has been given in dw:lep2 . The distributions obtained from the phase-space-slicing and subtraction methods are compatible with each other. The integration errors are larger further away from the W resonance because of the decreasing statistics.

For the angular distributions, we define all angles in the laboratory system, which is the CM system of the initial state. The relative corrections to the distributions in the cosines of the $`\mathrm{W}^+`$ production angle $`\theta _{W^+}`$ and of the decay angle $`\theta _{W^{}\mu ^{}}`$ are shown in Fig. 5 when bare cuts are applied. In contrast to the invariant-mass distributions, the angular distributions hardly depend on the recombination procedure apart from very large angles where the cross section is small. Thus, similar results are obtained when the calo recombination cut is used dw:paper . The distributions obtained with the subtraction and the phase-space-slicing branches of RacoonWW agree with each other within the integration errors, i.e. in general to better than $`0.5\%`$. The increase of the integration errors for large decay angles is due to the smallness of the corresponding cross section.

### Comparison with YFSWW3 at $`\sqrt{\mathrm{s}}=500\mathrm{GeV}`$

In dw:lep2mcws  a tuned comparison of RacoonWW and YFSWW3 of predictions for $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{WW}4f(\gamma )`$ observables at LEP2 CM energies has been performed. This comparison together with a study of the intrinsic uncertainty of the DPA with RacoonWW, as well as a comparison with a semi-analytical calculation dw:Be98 , enabled the assignment of an overall theoretical uncertainty of $`0.4\%`$ to the state-of-the-art MC predictions for the total W-pair production cross sections at 200 GeV dw:lep2mcws . This confirms the naively expected DPA accuracy of about 0.5% for $`\sqrt{s}\stackrel{>}{}180`$GeV for the total CC03 cross sections. In dw:paper  we studied the intrinsic ambiguities of the $`𝒪(\alpha )`$ corrections in DPA also at 500 GeV and found them to be 0.1% for the total W-pair production cross section and a few per mil whenever W-pair production dominates the considered observable. A comparison of RacoonWW and YFSWW3 results for the total W-pair production cross sections at 200 GeV and 500 GeV, when no or bare cuts are applied, is given in Table 2. The relative differences are at the $`0.3\%`$ level, which is of the order of the intrinsic ambiguity of any DPA implementation.

In Figs. 6, 7, and 8 we show the predictions of the subtraction-method branch of RacoonWW together with the predictions of YFSWW3 (scheme A) dw:yfswwnew  for the relative corrections to the W-invariant-mass and $`\mathrm{cos}\theta _{\mathrm{W}^+}`$ distributions to $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}\mathrm{u}\overline{\mathrm{d}}\mu ^{}\overline{\nu }_\mu (\gamma )`$ at 500 GeV when bare or calo cuts are applied.

In contrast to the LEP2 case, the radiative corrections now mostly increase the Born cross sections and are especially pronounced in the angular distributions. The dramatic increase of the relative corrections to the $`\mathrm{W}^+`$-production-angle distribution of Fig. 8 is due to initial-state hard photon radiation which causes a redistribution of events to a phase-space region where the Born cross sections are very small. A detailed discussion of the invariant-mass and angular distributions obtained with RacoonWW at 500 GeV is given in dw:nlc .

The invariant-mass distributions in Figs. 6 and 7 obtained by RacoonWW and YFSWW3 are statistically compatible with each other for both recombination procedures, i.e. they agree to better than 1%. The predictions of RacoonWW and YFSWW3 for the distributions in the cosine of the $`\mathrm{W}^+`$ production angle, shown in Fig. 8, agree within the statistical errors for small angles but differ by up to several per cent for intermediate and large angles where the cross sections become small. This behaviour is independent of the applied recombination cuts.

## Acknowledgments

We thank the authors of YFSWW3, S. Jadach, W. Płaczek, M. Skrzypek, B.F.L. Ward, and Z. Wa̧s, for helpful discussions about their results and for making them available to us before publication.