Ultra-relativistic electromagnetic plasmas can be used for improving our understanding of the quark-gluon plasma. In the weakly coupled regime both plasmas can be described by transport theoretical and quantum field theoretical methods leading to similar results for the plasma properties (dielectric tensor, dispersion relations, plasma frequency, Debye screening, transport coefficients, damping and particle production rates). In particular, future experiments with ultra-relativistic electron-positron plasmas in ultra-strong laser fields might open the possibility to test these predictions, e.g. the existence of a new fermionic plasma wave (plasmino). In the strongly coupled regime electromagnetic plasmas such as complex plasmas can be used as models or at least analogies for the quark-gluon plasma possibly produced in relativistic heavy-ion experiments. For example, pair correlation functions can be used to investigate the equation of state and cross section enhancement for parton scattering can be explained.
The quark-gluon plasma, possibly created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, is a strongly interacting many-body parton system. By comparison with strongly coupled electromagnetic plasmas (classical and non-relativistic) it is concluded that the quark-gluon plasma could be in the liquid phase. As an example for a strongly coupled plasma, complex plasmas, which show liquid and even solid phases, are discussed briefly. Furthermore, methods based on correlation functions for confirming and investigating the quark-gluon-plasma liquid are presented. Finally, consequences of the strong coupli…
The quark-gluon plasma close to the critical temperature is a strongly interacting system. Using strongly coupled, classical, non-relativistic plasmas as an analogy, we argue that the quark-gluon plasma is in the liquid phase. This allows to understand experimental observations in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions and to interpret lattice QCD results. It also supports the indications of the presence of a strongly coupled QGP in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions.
The screening potential of a parton moving through a quark-gluon plasma is calculated using the semi-classical transport theory. An anisotropic potential showing a minimum in the direction of the parton velocity is found. As consequences possible new bound states and J/psi dissociation are discussed.
Averaged over ensemble of initial conditions kinetic transport equations of weakly coupled systems of quarks and gluons are derived. These equations account for the correlators of fluctuations of particles and classical gluon fields. The isotropization of particle momenta by field fluctuations at the early prethermal stage of matter evolution in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions is discussed. Our results can be useful for understanding under what conditions isotropization of the quark-gluon plasma in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions can be reached within phenomenologically observed …
We show that the extensively studied equation of state (EOS) of strongly coupled QED plasma fits the recent lattice EOS data of gluon plasma remarkably well, with appropriate modifications to take account of color degrees of freedom and running coupling constant. Hence we conclude that the quark gluon plasma near the critical temperature is a strongly coupled color-Coulombic plasma.
By considering the Debye screening and damping rate of gluons, the viscosity coefficient of the quark-gluon plasma was evaluated via real-time finite temperature QCD in the relaxation time approximation at finite temperature and chemical potential . The results show that both the damping rate and the chemical potential cause considerable enhancements to the viscosity coefficient of hot dense quark-gluon plasma.
We study the radiative correction to $p_T$-broadening of a fast quark in a quark-gluon plasma beyond the soft gluon approximation. We find that the radiative processes can suppress considerably $p_T$-broadening. This differs dramatically from previous calculations to logarithmic accuracy in the soft gluon approximation, predicting a considerable enhancement of $p_T$-broadening.
Chromodynamic fluctuations in the collisionless quark-gluon plasma are found as a solution of the initial value linearized problem. The stable and unstable plasmas are discussed.
Brief review of the hadronic probes that are used to diagnose the quark-gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions and interrogate its properties. Emphasis is placed on probes that have significantly impacted our understanding of the nature of the quark-gluon plasma and confirmed its formation.
We study a smooth crossover transition in the gas of quark-gluon bags. The equation of state at high temperature is that of the quark-gluon plasma. However, the system consists of the bags with finite volumes which are defined by the model parameters of the mass-volume bag spectrum. Possible structures in this {\it cluster} quark-gluon plasma are classified.
Since the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) reveals some obvious similarities to the well-known electromagnetic plasma (EMP), an accumulated knowledge on EMP can be used in the QGP studies. After discussing similarities and differences of the two systems, we present theoretical tools which are used to describe the plasmas. The tools include: kinetic theory, hydrodynamic approach and diagrammatic perturbative methods. We consider collective phenomena in the plasma with a particular emphasis on instabilities which crucially influence temporal evolution of the system. Finally, properties of strongly coupl…
A calculation of the thermal quark propagator is presented taking the gluon condensate above the critical temperature into account. The quark dispersion relation following from this propagator is derived.
We present a calculation of the thermal quark propagator taking the gluon condensate above the critical temperature into account. The quark dispersion relation following from this propagator, describing two massive modes, is discussed.
We study the color randomization of two-gluon states produced after splitting of a primary fast gluon in the quark-gluon plasma. We find that for the LHC conditions the color randomization of the $gg$ pairs is rather slow. At jet energies $E=100$ and $500$ GeV, for typical jet path length in the plasma in central Pb+Pb collisions, the $SU(3)$-multiplet averaged color Casimir of the $gg$ pair differs considerably from its value $2N_c$ for a fully randomized $gg$ state. Our calculations of the energy dependence for generation of the nearly collinear decuplet $gg$ states, that can lead to the bar…
The density of states and energy spectrum of the gluon radiation are calculated for the color current of an expanding hydrodynamic skyrmion in the quark gluon plasma with a semiclassical method. Results are compared with those in literatures.
The implications of a numerical error in the photon production rate on the direct photon spectrum of a chemically non-equilibrated quark-gluon plasma are discussed.
We study the radiative correction to $p_\perp$-broadening of a fast quark in a quark-gluon plasma beyond the soft gluon approximation. We find that the radiative contribution to quark $\langle p_\perp^2\rangle$ for RHIC and LHC conditions is negative.
The observational consequences of certain broken symmetries in a thermalised quark gluon plasma are elucidated. The signature under study is the spectrum of dileptons radiating from the plasma, through gluon fusion. Being a pure medium effect, this channel is non-vanishing only in plasmas with explicitly broken charge conjugation invariance. The emission rates are also sensitive to rotational invariance through the constraints imposed by Yang's theorem. This theorem is interpreted in the medium via the destructive interference between various multiple scattering diagrams obtained in the specta…
A calculation of the thermal quark propagator is presented taking the gluon condensate above the critical temperature into account. The quark dispersion relation and the dilepton production following from this propagator are derived.
We study the influence of the magnetic field on the photon emission from the quark-gluon plasma created in $AA$ collisions. We find that even for very optimistic assumption on the magnitude of the magnetic field for noncentral $AA$ collisions the effect of magnetic field is very small.
We calculate the probability distribution P(k_\perp) for the momentum perpendicular to its original direction of motion that an energetic quark or gluon picks up as it propagates through weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma in thermal equilibrium.
Recent experiments at RHIC and theoretical considerations indicate that the quark-gluon plasma, present in the fireball of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, might be in a liquid phase. The liquid state can be identified by characteristic correlation and structure functions. Here definitions of the structure functions and pair correlations of the quark-gluon plasma are presented as well as perturbative results. These definitions might be useful for verifying the quark-gluon-plasma liquid in QCD lattice calculations.
We study dimuonium $(μ^+μ^-)$ production in the quark-gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The production is controlled by the process $q\bar q\rightarrow (μ^+μ^-)g$, and the dimuonium motion in the plasma is described by a transport equation. While the electrodynamics dominated dimuonium yield is not high enough, the transverse energy distribution carries the information of the plasma at RHIC and LHC energies.
$\hat q$ is the average squared transverse momentum transfer per unit length to a high-energy particle traversing a QCD medium such as a quark-gluon plasma. We find the (UV-regulated) value of $\hat q$ to leading order in the weak coupling limit, $\alphas(T) \ll 1$. We then use this value to generalize previous analytic results on the gluon bremsstrahlung and pair production rates for massless high-energy particles in a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma, at next-to-leading logarithmic order.
We study the rotational collective motion of the quark-gluon plasma in relativistic heavy ion collisions using the widely-adopted AMPT (A Multi-Phase Transport) model. The global angular momentum, the average vorticity carried by the quark-gluon plasma, and the locally defined vorticity fields are computed for Au+Au collisions, with detailed information of their time evolution, spatial distribution, as well as the dependence on beam energy and collision centrality.
The dilepton production rate from the quark-gluon plasma is calculated from the imaginary part of the photon self energy using a quark propagator that contains the gluon condensate. The low mass dilepton rate obtained in this way exhibits interesting structures (peaks and gaps), which might be observable at RHIC and LHC.
The incorporation of running $α_s$ for the gluon emission vertex in calculations of radiative parton energy loss in a quark-gluon plasma is discussed. It is argued that the virtuality scale for running $α_s$ for induced gluon emission is determined by the square of the transverse momentum of the emitted gluon rather than by the square of the invariant mass of the final two-parton state often used in the literature.
The quark-gluon plasma (QGP) excitations, corresponding to the scalar and pseudoscalar meson quantum numbers, for different temperatures are calculated. Analysis is performed in the Hard Thermal Loop (HTL) Approximation and leads to a better understanding of the excitations of QGP in the deconfined phase and is also of relevance for lattice studies.
This is a critical review of the various observables that have been proposed to signal the change from dense hadronic matter to a quark-gluon plasma at high temperature or baryon density. I discuss current models of quark-gluon plasma formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions and analyze the virtues and ambiguities of various signatures. [The author especially invites comments by interested readers concerning possible inaccuracies or omissions before this review appears in print.]
We estimate the radiative energy-loss of heavy quarks, produced from the initial fusion of partons, while propagating in a quark-gluon plasma which may be formed in the wake of relativistic heavy ion collisions. We find that the radiative energy-loss for heavy quarks is larger than the collisional energy-loss for all energies. We point out the consequences on possible signals of the quark-gluon plasma.
The rate of quark-gluon plasma droplet nucleation in superheated hadronic matter is calculated within the MIT bag model. The requirements of color singletness and (to less extent) fixed momentum suppress the nucleation rate by many orders of magnitude, making thermal nucleation of quark-gluon plasma droplets unlikely in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions if the transition is first order and reasonably described by the bag model.
We study the electromagnetic response of the quark-gluon plasma in AA-collisions at RHIC and LHC energies for a realistic space-time evolution of the plasma fireball. We demonstrate that for a realistic electric conductivity the electromagnetic response of the plasma is in a quantum regime when the induced electric current does not generate a classical electromagnetic field, and can only lead to a rare emission of single photons.
We calculate the gluon dissociation cross-section in an anisotropic quark gluon plasma expected to be formed due relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. The initial rapid longitudinal expansion of the system leads to momentum space anisotropy due which the observables are affected in such a system. We show that the thermally weighted cross-section of gluon dissociation undergoes modification in anisotropic plasma leading to a decreased probability of $J/ψ$ suppression both for RHIC and LHC energies. The dependence of the cross section as well as the survival probability on the direction of pr…
We study a pure gluon plasma in the context of quasiparticle models, where the plasma is considered as an ideal gas of massive bosons. In order to reproduce SU(3) gauge field lattice data within such a framework, we review briefly the necessity to use a temperature-dependent gluon mass which accounts for color interactions between the gluons near $T_{\text{c}}$ and agrees with perturbative QCD at large temperatures. Consequently, we discuss the thermodynamics of systems with temperature-dependent Hamiltonians and clarify the situation about the possible solutions proposed in the literature to …
Jets and photons could play an important role in finding the transport coefficients of the quark-gluon plasma. To this end we analyze their interaction with a non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma. Using new field-theoretical tools we derive two-point correlators for the plasma which show how instabilities evolve in time. This allows us, for the first time, to derive finite rates of interaction with the medium. We furthermore show that coherent, long-wavelength instability fields in the Abelian limit do not modify the rate of photon emission or jet-medium interaction.
A Lagrangian density for viscous quark-gluon plasma has been constructed within the fluid-like QCD framework. Gauge symmetry is preserved for all terms inside the Lagrangian, except for the viscous term. The transition mechanism from point particle field to fluid field, and vice versa, is discussed. The energy momentum tensor that is relevant for the gluonic plasma having the nature of fluid bulk of gluon sea is derived within the model. By imposing conservation law in the energy momentum tensor, shear viscosity appears as extractable from the equation.
Assuming that rho-mesons exist in a quark-gluon plasma close to the QCD phase transition, we calculate the dilepton production rate from quark-antiquark annihilation via a rho-meson state using Vector Meson Dominance. The result is compared to the rates from direct quark-antiquark annihilation and from pion annihilation. Furthermore we discuss the suppression of low mass dileptons if the quarks assume an effective mass in the quark-gluon plasma.
The energy densities achieved during central collisions of large nuclei at the AGS may be high enough to allow the formation of quark--gluon plasma. We propose that most collisions at AGS energies produce superheated hadronic matter, but in rare events a droplet of quark--gluon plasma is nucleated. We estimate the probability of this to occur based on homogeneous and inhomogeneous nucleation theory and discuss possible experimental signals.
We study the behavior of the scalar glueball inside a Quark Gluon Plasma. We follow the fireball from the plasma phase to the hadronic phase and observe that an interesting phenomenon might occur which could have experimental consequences as a signature of Quark Gluon Plasma.
In this talk I discuss collective excitations that carry fermion quantum numbers. Such excitations occur in the quark-gluon plasma and can also be produced in cold atom systems under special conditions.
The lecture provides a brief introduction of thermal field theory within imaginary time formalism, the Hard Thermal Loop perturbation theory and some of its application to the physics of the quark-gluon plasma, possibly created in relativistic heavy ion collisions.
The historical context of the recent results from high energy heavy ion reactions devoted to the search of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is reviewed, with emphasis on the surprises encountered. The evidence for QGP from heavy ion reactions is compared with that available from particle reactions.
Under the framework of the viscous chromohydrodynamics, the gluon self-energy is derived for the quark-gluon plasma with shear viscosity. The viscous electric permittivity and magnetic permeability are evaluated from the gluon self-energy, through which the refraction index %in the %viscous quark-gluon plasma is investigated. The numerical analysis indicates that the refractive index becomes negative in some frequency range. The start point for that frequency range is around the electric permittivity pole, and the magnetic permeability pole determines the end point. As the increase of $η/s$, t…
Penetrating probes in heavy-ion collisions, like jets and photons, are sensitive to the transport coefficients of the produced quark-gluon plasma, such as shear and bulk viscosity. Quantifying this sensitivity requires a detailed understanding of photon emission and jet-medium interaction in a non-equilibrium plasma. Up to now, such an understanding has been hindered by plasma instabilities which arise out of equilibrium and lead to spurious divergences when evaluating the rate of interaction of hard probes with the plasma. In this paper, we show that taking into account the time evolution of …
We study, for the first time, the spatial extension of the "source" that produces quark gluon plasma (QGP) in ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions. The longitudinal dimension is studied as a function of time as the system evolves. The source size is found to exhibit a novel non-classical feature.
We study the energy-momentum and baryonic number conservation laws for quark-gluon plasma discontinuity transitions into hadron matter states. We find that the time-like shock hadronization of a supercooled quark-gluon plasma (when the normal vector to the discontinuity hypersurface is time-like) should take place. We consider some properties of this process, which is different from the standard space-like shock hadronization.
Two-photon intensity interferometry is shown to provide an accurate measurement of lifetime of quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions via the difference of outward and sidewardcorrelation radii. Under the assumption of a longitudinal, boost invariant expansion of the plasma, we obtain analytical expressions for the correlations from the quark-gluon plasma phase. A $3+1$ dimensional expansion of the plasma along with a first order phase transition to hadrons is next considered, and, leads to a source with two characteristic lifetimes, one for the quark-gluon plasm…
Wakes created by a parton moving through a static and infinitely extended quark-gluon plasma are considered. In contrast to former investigations collisions within the quark-gluon plasma are taken into account using a transport theoretical approach (Boltzmann equation) with a Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook collision term. Within this model it is shown that the wake structure changes significantly compared to the collisionless case.
Central nuclear collisions at energies far above 1 GeV/nucleon may provide for conditions, where the transition from highly excited hadronic matter into quark matter or quark-gluon plasma can be probed. Here I review our current understanding of the physical properties of a quark-gluon plasma and review ideas about the nature of, and signals for, the deconfinement transition. I also give a detailed presentation of recent progress in the treatment of the formation of a thermalized state at the parton level.
Initial conditions for quark-gluon plasma formation at $τ=0.1\fm$ are considered in lowest order perturbative QCD. Chemical composition, thermalization of the formed semihard quark-gluon system and especially implications of the new HERA parton distributions with the enhancement at small $x$ are studied. The plasma at $τ=0.1\fm$ is shown to be strongly gluon dominated both at RHIC and LHC, and a possibility for rapid thermalization of gluons at LHC is pointed out. Uncertainties in the calculations, particularly shadowing corrections to the parton distributions, are discussed. Free streaming an…
Recently we have reported the correct formulation of the lattice QCD method at the zero temperature to study the hadron formation from the quarks and gluons by incorporating the non-zero boundary surface term in QCD which arises due to the confinement of quarks and gluons inside the finite size hadron. In this paper we extend this to the finite temperature QCD and present the correct formulation of the lattice QCD method at the finite temperature to study the hadron formation from the quark-gluon plasma.
We calculate P(k_\perp), the probability distribution for an energetic parton that propagates for a distance L through a medium without radiating to pick up transverse momentum k_\perp, for a medium consisting of weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma. We use full or HTL self-energies in appropriate regimes, resumming each in order to find the leading large-L behavior. The jet quenching parameter \hat q is the second moment of P(k_\perp), and we compare our results to other determinations of this quantity in the literature, although we emphasize the importance of looking at P(k_\perp) in its entire…
Charge fluctuations studied on event-by-event basis have been recently suggested to provide a signal of the equilibrium quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions at high energies. It is argued that the fluctuations generated at the early collision stage when the energy is released can fake the signal.
