Using a viscous hydrodynamic model coupled to a hadronic cascade code, numerous features of the dynamics and equilibrium properties are explored for their impact on femtoscopic measurements. The equation of state, viscous parameters and initial conditions are investigated. We find that femtoscopy is affected by numerous model features at the 10% level, and that by including features and adjusting unknown parameters, one can explain experimental source size measurements to better than 10%.
On the basis of exactly solvable models with the tricritical and critical endpoints I discuss the physical mechanism of endpoints formation which is similar to the usual liquids. It is demonstrated that the necessary condition for the transformation of the 1-st order deconfinement phase transition into the 2-nd order phase transition at the (tri)critical endpoint is the vanishing of surface tension coefficient of large/heavy QGP bags. Using the novel model of the confinement phenomenon I argue that the physical reason for the cross-over appearance at low baryonic densities is the negative valu…
We study the prospects of using femtoscopic low-momentum correlation measurements at the Large Hadron Collider to access properties of the J/psi-nucleon interaction. The QCD multipole expansion in terms of the J/psi chromopolarizability relates the forward scattering amplitude to a key matrix element to the origin of the nucleon mass problem, the average chromoelectric gluon distribution in the nucleon. We use information on the J/psi-nucleon interaction provided by lattice QCD simulations and phenomenological models to compute J/psi-nucleon correlation functions. The computed correlation func…
Correlation femtoscopy allows one to measure the space-time characteristics of particle production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions due to the effects of quantum statistics (QS) and final state interactions (FSI). The main features of the femtoscopy measurements at top RHIC and LHC energies are considered as a manifestation of strong collective flow and are well interpreted within hydrodynamic models employing equation of state (EoS) with a crossover type transition between Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) and hadron gas phases. The femtoscopy at lower energies was intensively studied at AGS and S…
The hydrokinetic approach, that incorporates hydrodynamic expansion of the systems formed in A+A collisions and their dynamical decoupling, is applied to restore the initial conditions and space-time picture of the matter evolution in central Au+Au collisions at the top RHIC energy. The analysis is based on the detailed reproduction of the pion and kaon momentum spectra and femtoscopic data in whole interval of the transverse momenta studied by both STAR and PHENIX collaborations. The fitting procedure utilizes the two parameters: the maximal energy density at supposed thermalization time 1 fm…
The bulk viscosity of hot QCD medium has been obtained in the presence of strong magnetic field. The present investigation involves the estimation of the quark damping rate and subsequently the thermal relaxation time for quarks in the presence of magnetic field while realizing the hot QCD medium as an effective Grand-canonical ensemble of effective gluons and quarks-antiquarks. The dominant process in the strong field limit is $1\rightarrow 2$ ($g\rightarrow q \bar{q}$) which contributes to the bulk viscosity in a most significant way. Further, setting up the linearized transport equation in …
The results on the main bulk observables obtained in the simulations within the integrated hydrokinetic model (iHKM) of Au+Au collisions at the RHIC energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV are presented along with the corresponding experimental data from the STAR and the PHENIX collaborations. The simulations include all the stages of the collision process: formation of the initial state, its gradual thermalization and hydrodynamization, viscous relativistic hydro-evolution, system's hadronization and particlization, and, finally, an expansion of the interacting hadron-resonance gas. The model gives a …
Two-particle femtoscopy reveals the space-time substructure of the freeze-out configuration from heavy ion collisions. Detailed fingerprints of bulk collectivity are evident in space-momentum correlations, which have been systematically measured as a function of particle type, three-momentum, and collision conditions. A clear scenario, dominated by hydrodynamic-type flow emerges. Reproducing the strength and features of the femtoscopic signals in models involves important physical quantities like the Equation of State, as well as less fundamental technical details. An interesting approximate "…
We compute the bulk viscosity zeta of high-temperature QCD to leading order in powers of the running coupling alpha_s(T). We find that it is negligible compared to shear viscosity eta for any alpha_s that might reasonably be considered small. The physics of bulk viscosity in QCD is a bit different than in scalar phi^4 theory. In particular, unlike in scalar theory, we find that an old, crude estimate of zeta as 15 ((1/3)-v_s^2)^2 eta gives the correct order of magnitude, where v_s is the speed of sound. We also find that leading-log expansions of our result for zeta are not accurate except at …
A simultaneous description of hadronic yields; pion, kaon, and proton spectra; elliptic flows; and femtoscopy scales in the hydrokinetic model of A+A collisions is presented at different centralities for the top BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) 2.76-TeV energies. The initial conditions are based on the Glauber Monte-Carlo simulations. When going from RHIC to LHC energy in the model, the only parameters changed are the normalization of the initial entropy defined by the number of all charged particles in most central collisions, contribution to ent…
We investigate the consequences of a nonzero bulk viscosity coefficient on the transverse momentum spectra, azimuthal momentum anisotropy, and multiplicity of charged hadrons produced in heavy ion collisions at LHC energies. The agreement between a realistic 3D hybrid simulation and the experimentally measured data considerably improves with the addition of a bulk viscosity coefficient for strongly interacting matter. This paves the way for an eventual quantitative determination of several QCD transport coefficients from the experimental heavy ion and hadron-nucleus collision programs.
Kubo's formula relates bulk viscosity to the retarded Green's function of the trace of the energy-momentum tensor. Using low energy theorems of QCD for the latter we derive the formula which relates the bulk viscosity to the energy density and pressure of hot matter. We then employ the available lattice QCD data to extract the bulk viscosity as a function of temperature. We find that close to the deconfinement temperature bulk viscosity becomes large, with viscosity-to-entropy ratio zeta/s about 1.
In the proximity of the QCD critical point the bulk viscosity of quark-gluon matter is expected to be proportional to nearly the third power of the critical correlation length, and become significantly enhanced. This work is the first attempt to study the phenomenological consequences of enhanced bulk viscosity near the QCD critical point. For this purpose, we implement the expected critical behavior of the bulk viscosity within a non-boost-invariant, longitudinally expanding $1+1$ dimensional causal relativistic hydrodynamical evolution at non-zero baryon density. We demonstrate that the crit…
The effects of longitudinal bulk viscous pressure on the heavy quark dynamics have been estimated in a strongly magnetized quark-gluon plasma within the Fokker-Planck approach. The bulk viscous modification to the momentum distribution of bulk degrees of freedom has been obtained in the presence of a magnetic field while incorporating the realistic equation of state of the hot magnetized QCD medium. As the magnetic field breaks the isotropy of the medium, the analysis is done along the directions longitudinal and transverse to the field. The longitudinal bulk viscous contribution is seen to ha…
The bulk viscosity, $ζ$ and its ratio with the shear viscosity, $ζ/η$ have been studied in an anisotropically expanding pure glue plasma in the presence of turbulent color fields. It has been shown that the anisotropy in the momentum distribution function of gluons, which has been determined from a linearized transport equation eventually leads to the bulk viscosity. For the isotropic (equilibrium) state, a recently proposed quasi-particle model of pure SU(3) lattice QCD equation of state has been employed where the interactions are encoded in the effective fugacity. It has been argued that th…
In order to compare theoretical calculations of thermal fluctuations of conserved quantities, such as charge susceptibilities or the specific heat, to experimentally measured correlations and fluctuations in heavy ion collisions, one must confront the reality of changing conditions within the collision environment, and transport of conserved quantities within the finite duration of the expansion and dissolution of the reaction. In previous work, fluctuations of conserved charges from lattice calculations, where charge is allowed to fluctuate within the designated volume consistent with the gra…
I review recent progress in lattice QCD at non-zero temperature whith emphasis on the calculations of equation of state and the properties of heavy quar anti-quark pairs at high temperatures. I also briefly discuss the deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoring aspects of the QCD transition at finite temperature
The study of high energy collisions between heavy nuclei is a field unto itself, distinct from nuclear and particle physics. A defining aspect of heavy ion physics is the importance of a bulk, self-interacting system with a rich space-time substructure. I focus on the issue of timescales in heavy ion collisions, starting with proof from low-energy collisions that femtoscopy can, indeed, measure very long timescales. I then discuss the relativistic case, where detailed measurements over three orders of magnitude in energy reveal a timescale increase that might be due to a first-order phase tran…
Effects of the bulk viscosity on the elliptic flow are studied. To introduce a realistic equation of state and transport coefficients, we apply the results of the lattice QCD and hadron resonance gas calculations for these quantities. We found that the bulk viscosity acts in a non trivial manner on the elliptic flow $v_{2}$. The reduction of $v_{2}$ is more effective at low $p_{T}$ compared to the case of shear viscosity, whereas at high $p_{T}$, the situation is reversed, leading to $v_{2}$ enhancement. We argue that this is caused by the competition of the critical behaviors of the equation …
We extract the bulk viscosity of hot quark-gluon matter in the presence of light quarks from the recent lattice data on the QCD equation of state. For that purpose we extend the sum rule analysis by including the contribution of light quarks. We also discuss the universal properties of bulk viscosity in the vicinity of a second order phase transition, as it might occur in the chiral limit of QCD at fixed strange quark mass and most likely does occur in two-flavor QCD. We point out that a chiral transition in the O(4) universality class at zero baryon density as well as the transition at the ch…
We examine the behavior of the spectral function for the trace of the stress tensor in QCD in the two regimes where it is possible to make analytical progress; weak coupling, and close to a second order QCD phase transition. We determine the behavior of the bulk viscosity in each regime. We discuss the problem of analytic continuation of the (lattice) Euclidean correlation function to determine the spectral function. In each case the spectral function has a narrow peak at small frequency; its shape would be challenging to extract accurately from lattice data with error bars.
We derive the sum rule for the spectral function of the stress-energy tensor in the bulk (uniform dilatation) channel in a general class of strongly coupled field theories. This class includes theories holographically dual to a theory of gravity coupled to a single scalar field, representing the operator of the scale anomaly. In the limit when the operator becomes marginal, the sum rule coincides with that in QCD. Using the holographic model, we verify explicitly the cancellation between large and small frequency contributions to the spectral integral required to satisfy the sum rule in such Q…
In this article, shear viscosity, bulk viscosity, and thermal conductivity of a hot QCD medium have been studied in the presence of a strong magnetic field. To model the hot magnetized QCD matter, an extended quasi-particle description of the hot QCD equation of state in the presence of the magnetic field has been adopted. The effects of higher Landau levels on the temperature dependence of viscous coefficients (bulk and shear viscosities) and thermal conductivity have been obtained by considering the $1\rightarrow 2$ processes in the presence of the strong magnetic field. An effective covaria…
Search for the conjectured QCD critical point is one of the major scientific goals for the Beam Energy Scan program at RHIC. The growth of the correlation length is a universal feature for systems near criticality, and bulk viscosity exhibits the strongest dependence on the correlation length. We investigate its effects using a relativistic hydrodynamic model to find that rapidity distributions of charged particles and net baryon number are visibly modified if the fireball passes through the vicinity of the QCD critical point on the phase diagram. We also discuss how critical modification of d…
We study the behavior of the bulk viscosity $ζ$ in QCD near a possible critical endpoint in the phase diagram. We verify the expectation that $(ζ/s)\sim a(ξ/ξ_0)^{x_ζ}$, where $s$ is the entropy density, $ξ$ is the correlation length, $ξ_0$ is the non-critical correlation length, $a$ is a constant and $x_ζ\simeq 3$. Using a recently developed equation of state that includes a critical point in the universality class of the Ising model we estimate the constant of proportionality $a$. We find that $a$ is typically quite small, $a\sim O(10^{-4})$. We observe, however, that the result is sensitive…
We introduce a combined fully three-dimensional macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic 3D-hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is being created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC. Our approach is capable of self-consistently calculating the freezeout of the hadronic system, while accounting for the collective flow on the ha…
The nonperturbative QCD vacuum at finite temperature and a finite baryon density in an external magnetic field is studied. Equations relating nonperturbative condensates to the thermodynamic pressure for $T\neq 0$, $μ_q \neq 0$ and $H\neq 0$ are obtained, and low-energy theorems are derived. A bulk viscosity $ζ(T, μ, H)$ is expressed in terms of basic thermodynamical quantities describing the quark-gluon matter at $T\neq 0$, $μ_q \neq 0$, and $H\neq 0$. Various limiting cases are also considered.
We solve the relativistic Navier-Stokes equations with homogeneous boost-invariant boundary conditions, and perform a stability analysis of the solution. We show that, if the bulk viscosity has a peak around $T_c$ as inferred from QCD-based arguments, the background solution "freezes" at $T_c$ to a nearly constant temperature state. This state is however highly unstable with respect to certain inhomogeneous modes. Calculations show that these modes have enough time to blow up and tear the system into droplets. We conjecture that this is how freeze-out occurs in the QGP created in heavy ion col…
We discuss the influence of different initial conditions for the stress tensor and the effect of bulk viscosity on the expansion and cooling of the fireball created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In particular, we explore the evolution of longitudinal and transverse components of the pressure and the extent of dissipative entropy production in the one-dimensional, boost-invariant hydrodynamic model. We find that a bulk viscosity consistent with recent estimates from lattice QCD further slows the equilibration of the system, however it does not significantly increase the entropy produced…
Non-equilibrium corrections to the distribution functions of quarks and gluons in a hot and dense QCD medium modify the "hard thermal loops" (HTL). The HTLs determine the retarded, advanced, and symmetric (time-ordered) propagators for gluons with soft momenta as well as the Debye screening and Landau damping mass scales. We compute such corrections to a thermal as well as to a non-thermal fixed point.The screening and damping mass scales are sensitive to the bulk pressure and hence to (pseudo-) critical dynamical scaling of the bulk viscosity in the vicinity of a second-order critical point. …
We introduce a combined macroscopic/microscopic transport approach employing relativistic hydrodynamics for the early, dense, deconfined stage of the reaction and a microscopic non-equilibrium model for the later hadronic stage where the equilibrium assumptions are not valid anymore. Within this approach we study the dynamics of hot, bulk QCD matter, which is expected to be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at the SPS, the RHIC and the LHC. Our approach is capable of self-consistently calculating the freeze-out of the hadronic system, while accounting for the collective flow o…
The collective behavior of hadrons and of electromagnetic radiation in heavy-ion collisions has been widely used to study the properties of the the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Indeed this collectivity, as measured by anisotropic flow coefficients, can be used to constrain the transport properties of QGP. The goal of this contribution is to investigate the influence of the specific bulk viscosity ($ζ/s$) on dilepton production, both at Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies. We explore the sensitivity of dileptons to dynamical features that bulk viscosity …
We present an estimate of the behaviour of the shear and bulk viscosity coefficients when the QCD critical point is approached from the hadronic side, describing hadronic matter within the statistical bootstrap model (SBM) of strong interactions. The boostrap model shows critical behavior near the quark-hadron transition temperature if the parameter characterizing the degeneracy of Hagedorn states is properly chosen. We calculate the critical exponents and amplitudes of relevant thermodynamic quantities near the QCD critical point and combine them with an Ansatz for the shear and bulk viscosit…
In recent years, there has been a significant effort to extract the temperature-dependent shear ($η/s$) and bulk ($ζ/s$) viscosity over entropy ratios of the quark-gluon plasma from a global comparison of heavy-ion data with results of hydrodynamic simulations. However, anisotropic flow, which is arguably the most sensitive probe of viscosity, is only sensitive to an {\it effective\/} viscosity over entropy ratio, which is obtained by taking a weighted average over the temperature, and summing the contributions of shear and bulk. We estimate this effective viscosity using existing first-princi…
We present the bulk thermodynamic properties and phase diagram of strongly interacting matter in an extension of the 3-flavor NJL and PNJL models of QCD. Using a three momentum cut-off scheme, we have extended the multiquark interaction terms up to eight order so that the stability of the vacuum is ensured in these models. We explore the effects of various combinations of the two eight-quark couplings $g_1$ and $g_2$ and present a comparative study between the NJL and PNJL models as well as Lattice QCD data. The main effect of the eight-quark interaction term is to shift the critical end point…
The ultraviolet completion of a large N QCD model requires introducing new degrees of freedom at certain scale so that the UV behavior may become asymptotically conformal with no Landau poles and no UV divergences of Wilson loops. These UV degrees of freedom are represented by certain anti-branes arranged on the blown-up sphere of a warped resolved conifold in a way that they are separated from the other set of branes that control the IR behavior of the theory. This separation of the branes and the anti-branes creates instability in the theory. Further complications arise from the curvature of…
We calculate the bulk viscosity, drag force and jet quenching parameter in Improved Holographic QCD. We find that the bulk viscosity rises near the phase transition but does not exceed the shear viscosity. The drag force shows the effects of asymptotic freedom both as a function of velocity and temperature. It indicates diffusion times of heavy quarks in rough agreement with data. The jet quenching parameter values computed via the light-like Wilson loop are in the lower range suggested by data.
Recent studies of the hot QCD matter indicate that the bulk viscosity ($ζ$) of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) rises sharply near the critical point of the QCD phase transition. In this work, we show that such a sharp rise of the bulk viscosity will lead to an effective negative pressure near the critical temperature, $T_{c}$ which in turn drives the Universe to inflate. This inflation has a natural graceful exist when the viscous effect evanesce. We estimate that, depending upon the peak value of $ζ$, universe expands by a factor of $10$ to $80$ times in a very short span ($Δt\sim 10^{-8}$ seconds).…
Using our developed new relativistic viscous hydrodynamics code, we investigate the temperature dependence of shear and bulk viscosities from comparison with the ALICE data: single particle spectra and collective flows of Pb+Pb $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. We find that from the comprehensive analyses of centrality dependence of single particle spectra and collective flows we can extract detailed information on the quark-gluon plasma bulk property, without the information being smeared by the final state interactions.
We study the onset of bubble formation (cavitation) in the quark-gluon plasma as a result of the reduction of the effective pressure from bulk-viscous corrections. By calculating velocity gradients in typical models for quark-gluon plasma evolution in heavy-ion collisions, we obtain results for the critical bulk viscosity above which cavitation occurs. Since present experimental data for heavy-ion collisions seems inconsistent with the presence of bubbles above the phase transition temperature of QCD, our results may be interpreted as an upper limit of the bulk viscosity in nature. Our results…
We revisit the holographic description of strange baryons in the context of the Sakai-Sugimoto construction, by considering the strange quark mass as heavy. Hyperons are described by a massive $(K,K^*)$ multiplet, bound to a light-flavor instanton in bulk, much in the spirit of the Callan-Klebanov construction. The modular Hamiltonian maps onto the Landau problem, a charged particle in a 2-dimensional external magnetic field, induced by the bulk Chern-Simons interaction, plus spin-orbit coupling. The ensuing holographic hyperon spectrum compares fairly with the empirical one. The holographic s…
We provide a general framework for the derivation of the hydrodynamical corrections to the QCD electromagnetic emissivities in a viscous fluid. Assuming that the emission times are short in comparison to the fluid evolution time, we show that the leading corrections in the fluid gradients are controlled by the bulk and shear tensors times pertinent response functions involving the energy-momentum tensor. In a hadronic fluid phase, we explicit these contributions using spectral functions. Using the vector dominance approximation, we show that the bulk viscosity correction to the photon rate is …
The transport properties of dense QCD matter play a crucial role in the physics of neutron stars and their mergers, but are notoriously difficult to study with traditional quantum field theory tools. Specializing to the case of unpaired quark matter in beta equilibrium, we approach the problem through the machinery of holography, in particular the V-QCD and D3-D7 models, and derive results for the electrical and thermal conductivities and the shear and bulk viscosities. In addition we compare the bulk to shear viscosity ratio to the speed of sound and find that it violates the so-called Buchel…
We review recent progress in studies of bulk thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter, present results on the QCD equation of state and discuss the status of studies of the phase diagram at non-vanishing quark chemical potential.
We construct a holographic model for baryons in the context of AdS/QCD and study the spin-1/2 nucleon spectra and its couplings to mesons, taking fully account of the effects from the chiral symmetry breaking. A pair of 5D spinors is introduced to represent both left and right chiralities. Our model contains two adjustable parameters, the infrared cutoff and the Yukawa coupling of bulk spinors to bulk scalars, corresponding to the order parameter of chiral symmetry. Taking the lowest-lying nucleon mass as an input, we calculate the mass spectrum of excited nucleons and the nucleon couplings to…
We propose a scenario for bottom-up gravity dual picture of QCD-like theories, which consists of two near-AdS$_5$ domains separated by the ``domain wall'' at which the effective coupling relatively rapidly switches from small perturbative value at its UV side to strong at its IR side. Its consequence are corresponding jumps in 5-d masses of the bulk fields, related to different anomalous dimensions of the corresponding operators. Inclusion of both weakly and strongly coupled parts of bulk wave functions allows for consistent inclusion of QCD hard processes. We further discuss how transitions f…
We establish a holographic bottom-up model which covers both the baryonic and quark matter phases in cold and dense QCD. This is obtained by including the baryons using simple approximation schemes in the V-QCD model, which also includes the backreaction of the quark matter to the dynamics of pure Yang-Mills. We examine two approaches for homogeneous baryon matter: baryons as a thin layer of noninteracting matter in the holographic bulk, and baryons with a homogeneous bulk gauge field. We find that the second approach exhibits phenomenologically reasonable features. At zero temperature, the va…
The properties of quantum-chromo dynamics (QCD) nowadays are accessable by lattice QCD calculations at vanishing quark chemical potential $μ_q$=0 but often lack a transparent physical interpretation. In this review we report about results from an extended dynamical quasiparticle model (DQPM$^*$) in which the effective parton propagators have a complex selfenergy that depends on the temperature $T$ of the medium as well as on the chemical potential $μ_q$ and the parton three-momentum ${\boldsymbol p}$ with respect to the medium at rest. It is demonstrated that this approach allows for a good de…
We review the recent development on a systematic deterministic formalism describing dynamics of both bulk and fluctuations in an arbitrary relativistic hydrodynamic flow carrying conserved charges. In particular, we discuss the implementation of such general formalism near the QCD critical point.
In the hadronic phase, the dominant configuration of QCD with two flavors of massless quarks is a gas of massless pions. We calculate the bulk viscosity (zeta) using the Boltzmann equation with the kinetic theory generalized to incorporate the trace anomaly. We find that the dimensionless ratio zeta/s, s being the entropy density, is monotonic increasing below T=120 MeV, where chiral perturbation theory is applicable. This, combined with previous results, shows that zeta/s reaches its maximum near the phase transition temperature Tc, while eta/s, eta being the shear viscosity, reaches its mini…
