When the phase transition from the hadronic matter to the deconfined quark-gluon plasma or quark-gluon liquid is reached, the color degrees of freedom become important and appear explicitly in the equation of state. Under the extreme conditions, the color degrees of freedom can not decouple from the other degrees of freedom. The conservation of color charges is maintained by introducing the color chemical potentials and their fugacities. We demonstrate the explicit role of color degrees of freedom in the hot and dense matter of the weakly interacting quarks and gluons. In order to illustrate our approach, we calculate the effective colored quark and gluon propagators as well as the hard thermal colored quark and gluon loops. The calculations are preformed under the assumption of the hard thermal loop approximation. Finally, we present the decay rate for the hard thermal colored quark. The present calculation is relevant to the quarks and gluons which are not truly deconfined quark-gluon plasma and behave as a fluid in the RHIC energy. The model can be explored in the LHC energy.
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.
$\hat q$ 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.
Lattice QCD studies on fluctuations and correlations of charm quantum number have established that deconfinement of charm degrees of freedom sets in around the chiral crossover temperature, $T_c$, i.e. charm degrees of freedom carrying fractional baryonic charge start to appear. By reexamining those same lattice QCD data we show that, in addition to the contributions from quark-like excitations, the partial pressure of charm degrees of freedom may still contain significant contributions from open-charm meson and baryon-like excitations associated with integral baryonic charges for temperatures…
We calculate the shear (eta) and bulk (zeta) viscosities of a weakly coupled quark gluon plasma at the leading-log order with finite temperature T and quark chemical potential mu. We find that the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio eta/s increases monotonically with mu and eventually scales as (mu/T)^2 at large mu. In contrary, zeta/s is insensitive to mu. Both eta/s and zeta/s are monotonically decreasing functions of the quark flavor number N_f when N_f \geq 2. This property is also observed in pion gas systems. Our perturbative calculation suggests that QCD becomes the most perfect (i…
We report about a recent calculation of the heavy quarkonium mass and decay width in a quark-gluon plasma, whose temperature T and screening mass m_D satisfy the hierarchy m alpha_s >> pi T >> m alpha_s^2 >> m_D, m being the heavy-quark mass, up to order m alpha_s^5. The calculation may be relevant to understand the behavior of the Y(1S) in a quark-gluon plasma at present-day colliders.
We derive a simple formula for the stopping distance for a high-energy quark traveling through a weakly-coupled quark gluon plasma. The result is given to next-to-leading-order in an expansion in inverse logarithms ln(E/T), where T is the temperature of the plasma. We also define a stopping distance for gluons and give a leading-log result. Discussion of stopping distance has a theoretical advantage over discussion of energy loss rates in that stopping distances can be generalized to the case of strong coupling, where one may not speak of individual partons.
We report a recent calculation of the heavy quarkonium energy levels and decay widths in a quark- gluon plasma whose temperature is much smaller than the inverse radius of the bound state, based on a Non-Relativistic Effective Field theory framework for heavy quarkonium at finite temperature. Relevance for the phenomenology of the Y(1S) in heavy ion collisions is also discussed.
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…
I report on some theoretical progress concerning the calculation of gluon bremsstrahlung for very high energy particles crossing a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma. (i) I advertise that two of the several formalisms used to study this problem, the BDMPS-Zakharov formalism and the AMY formalism (the latter used only for infinite, uniform media), can be made equivalent when appropriately formulated. (ii) A standard technique to simplify calculations is to expand in inverse powers of logarithms $\ln(E/T)$. I give an example where such expansions are found to work well for $ω/T \gtrsim 10$ where …
We calculate the conductivity matrix of a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma at the leading-log order. By setting all quark chemical potentials to be identical, the diagonal conductivities become degenerate and positive, while the off-diagonal ones become degenerate but negative (or zero when the chemical potential vanishes). This means a potential gradient of a certain fermion flavor can drive backward currents of other flavors. A simple explanation is provided for this seemingly counter intuitive phenomenon. It is speculated that this phenomenon is generic and most easily measured in cold ato…
The transverse momentum broadening coefficient $\hat{q}$ receives both soft, classical and radiative, quantum corrections. The former are responsible for a large O(g) correction, whereas the latter enter at relative order $α_s$, but are enhanced by a double logarithm of the length of the medium over the thermal wavelength. We analyze radiative corrections for a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma. We find that a thermal population of dynamical gluons changes the boundaries and reduces the size of the double-logarithmic phase space. It also provides new subdominant logarithmic corrections. We als…
The thermodynamic properties of the quark gluon plasma($QGP$) as well as its phase diagram are calculated as a function of baryon density (chemical potential) and temperature. The $QGP$ is assumed to be composed of the light quarks only, i.e. the up and the down quarks, which interact weakly and the gluons which are treated as they are free. The interaction between quarks is considered in the framework of the one gluon exchange model which is obtained from the Fermi liquid picture. The bag model is used, with fixed bag pressure (${\cal B}$) for the nonperturbative part and the quantum chromody…
Heavy quarks (charm and bottoms) are one of the few probes which are sensitive to the degrees of freedom of a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), which cannot be revealed by lattice gauge calculations in equilibrium. Due to the rapid expansion of the QGP energetic heavy quarks do not come to an equilibrium with the QGP. Their energy loss during the propagation through the QGP medium depends strongly on the modelling of the interaction of the heavy quarks with the QGP quarks and gluons, i.e. on the assuption of the degrees of freedom of the plasma. Here we compare the results of different models, the pQC…
Relativistic hydrodynamics simulations of quark-gluon plasma play a pivotal role in our understanding of heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. They are based on a phenomenological description due to Mueller, Israel, Stewart (MIS) and others, which incorporates viscous effects and ensures a well-posed initial value problem. Focusing on the case of conformal plasma we propose a generalization which includes, in addition, the dynamics of the least damped far-from-equilibrium degree of freedom found in strongly coupled plasmas through the AdS/CFT correspondence. We formulate new evolution equation…
We calculate the heavy quarkonium energy levels and decay widths in a quark-gluon plasma, whose temperature T and screening mass m_D satisfy the hierarchy m alpha_s >> T >> m alpha_s^2 >> m_D (m being the heavy-quark mass), at order m alpha_s^5. We first sequentially integrate out the scales m, m alpha_s and T, and, next, we carry out the calculations in the resulting effective theory using techniques of integration by regions. A collinear region is identified, which contributes at this order. We also discuss the implications of our results concerning heavy quarkonium suppression in heavy ion …
We compute the next-to-leading order O(g) correction to the thermal photon production rate in a QCD plasma. The NLO contributions can be expressed in terms of gauge invariant condensates on the light cone, which are amenable to novel sum rules and Euclidean techniques. We expect these technologies to be generalizable to other NLO calculations. For the phenomenologically interesting value of alpha_s=0.3, the NLO correction represents a 20% increase and has a functional form similar to the LO result.
I discuss some recent progress in our understanding of high energy nuclear collisions. I will focus on two topics which I was lucky to co-pioneer in the recent past. One is recombination of quarks and its interpretation as a signal for deconfinement, the second is electromagnetic radiation from jets passing through a quark gluon plasma. This talk was given during the award ceremony for the 2007 IUPAP Young Scientist Award.
In the early stages of heavy-ion collisions, the hot QCD matter expands more longitudinally than transversely. This imbalance causes the system to become rapidly colder in the longitudinal direction and a local momentum anisotropy appears. In this paper, we study the heavy-quarkonium spectrum in the presence of a small plasma anisotropy. We work in the framework of pNRQCD at finite temperature. We inspect arrangements of non-relativistic and thermal scales complementary to those considered in the literature. In particular, we consider temperatures larger and Debye masses smaller than the bindi…
One of the key signatures of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) is the energy loss of high momentum particles as they traverse the strongly interacting medium. The energy loss of these particles is governed by the jet transport coefficient $\hat{q}/T^3$, wherein it has been thought that there is a large jump as the system transitions between the hadron gas and Quark Gluon Plasma phases. Here we calculate $\hat{q}/T^3$ within the Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model with the particle list PDG16+ and find that, if one incorporates the experimental error in the hadronic calculation of $\hat{q}/T^3$ and ass…
We present a computation, within weakly-coupled thermal QCD, of the production rate of low invariant mass ($M^2 \sim g^2 T^2$) dileptons, at next-to-leading order (NLO) in the coupling (which is $O(g^3 e^2 T^2)$). This involves extending the NLO calculation of the photon rate which we recently presented to the case of small nonzero photon invariant mass. Numerical results are discussed and tabulated forms and code are provided for inclusion in hydrodynamical models. We find that NLO corrections can increase the dilepton rate by up to 30-40% relative to leading order. We find that the electroma…
We present an extension to next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant $g$ of the AMY effective kinetic approach to the energy loss of high momentum particles in the quark-gluon plasma. At leading order, the transport of jet-like particles is determined by elastic scattering with the thermal constituents, and by inelastic collinear splittings induced by the medium. We reorganize this description into collinear splittings, high-momentum-transfer scatterings, drag and diffusion, and particle conversions (momentum-preserving identity-changing processes). We show that this reorganized de…
A systematic analysis of the fusion cross sections around the Coulomb barrier energies with stable weakly bound ($^{6}$Li,$^{7}$Li,$^{9}$Be) and strongly bound $^{12}$C projectiles on various targets was performed by using neutron flow model and coupled channels approach. The analysis show that both the models are successful in explaining the near barrier fusion data. Further, it is also observed that the collective degrees of freedom as well as the neutron flow influence the near barrier fusion process involving weakly bound projectiles.
We study the production and the evolution of quark-gluon plasma expected to be formed in ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions, within the color flux-tube model. We introduce the gluonic component in the Boltzmann equation, which we solve in the phase space which is extended to include the SU(3) color degree of freedom. The color degree of freedom is shown to play a decisive role in equilibration, and in fixing the temperature of the plasma. We further find that the soft partons that we study here contribute substantially to the bulk properties. Finally, the model is shown to provide a detai…
In this talk we first discuss the motivation for using the AdS/CFT correspondence as a tool for the understanding of real-time dynamics of quark-gluon plasma. After describing the effective dual degrees of freedom for a strongly coupled gauge theory system, we review the subsequent theoretical `layers' in the physics of quark-gluon plasma: a uniform plasma at fixed temperature, linearized fluctuations, nonlinear hydrodynamic behaviour and finally some aspects of addressing non-equilibrium physics. The discussion is brief and aimed at nonspecialists.
Being interested in how a strongly coupled system approaches asymptotic freedom, we re-examine existing precision lattice QCD results for thermodynamic properties of the gluon plasma in a large temperature range. We discuss and thoroughly test the applicability of perturbative results, on which grounds we then infer that the pressure and other bulk properties approach the free limit somewhat slower than previously thought. We also revise the value of the first non-perturbative coefficient in the weak-coupling expansion.
The effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\text{eff}}$, obtained from CMB fluctuations accounts for all effectively massless degrees of freedom present in the Universe, including but not limited to the three known neutrinos. Using a lattice-QCD derived QGP equation of state, we constrain the observed range of $N_{\text{eff}}$ in terms of the the freeze-out of unknown degrees of freedom near to quark-gluon hadronization. We explore limits on the coupling of these particles, applying methods of kinetic theory. We present bounds on the coupling of such particles and discuss the implications of a con…
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.
Heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and the LHC have found a new emergent phase of QCD, a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) that is distinctively different from either the low temperature hadron phase or the very high temperature weakly coupled plasma phase. Highly nontrivial emergent phenomena occur in such sQGP and two examples will be discussed in this contribution: the magnetic component of sQGP that stems from topologically nontrivial configurations in the gluon sector; and the anomalous chiral transport that arises as macroscopic manifestation of microscopic chiral anomaly i…
The diquark has been considered to be important effective degrees of freedom in hadron physics, especially for multi-quark physics and the structure of heavy hadronic states. Using the Schwinger-Dyson formalism, we investigate the non-perturbative effect of gluons for scalar diquarks with renormalization-group improved coupling in the Landau gauge. Here, we treat the scalar diquark as an effective degree of freedom with a peculiar size, while the diquark is originally a bound-state-like object of two quarks. Since the diquark has a non-zero color charge, it strongly interacts with gluons. We e…
The Parton-Hadron-String-Dynamics (PHSD) transport model is used to study the impact on the choice of initial degrees of freedom on the final hadronic and electromagnetic observables in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. We find that a non-perturbative system of massive gluons (scenario I) and a system dominated by quarks and antiquarks (scenario II) lead to different hadronic observables when imposing the same initial energy-momentum tensor $T_{μν}(x)$ just after the passage of the impinging nuclei. In case of the gluonic initial condition the formation of $s,{\bar s}$ pairs in th…
The hot nuclear matter created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has been characterized by near-perfect fluid behavior. We demonstrate that this stands in contradiction to the identification of QCD quasi-particles with the thermodynamic degrees of freedom in the early (fluid) stage of heavy ion collisions. The empirical observation of constituent quark ``$n_q$'' scaling of elliptic flow is juxtaposed with the lack of such scaling behavior in hydrodynamic fluid calculations followed by Cooper-Frye freeze-out to hadrons. A ``quasi-particle transport'' time stage after viscous effects…
We study thermalization, hydrodynamization, and chemical equilibration in out-of-equilibrium Quark-Gluon Plasma starting from various initial conditions using QCD effective kinetic theory, valid at weak coupling. In non-expanding systems gauge bosons rapidly lose information of the initial state and achieve kinetic equilibrium among themselves, while fermions approach the equilibrium distribution only at later time. In systems undergoing rapid longitudinal expansion, both gluons and quarks are kept away from equilibrium by the expansion, but the evolution is well described by fluid dynamics ev…
In this study it is demonstrated that a simple picture of the QCD gluon liquid emerges in the dynamical quasiparticle model that specifies the active degrees of freedom in the time-like sector and yields a potential energy density in the space-like sector. By using the time-like gluon density (or scalar gluon density) as an independent degree of freedom - instead of the temperature $T$ as a Lagrange parameter - variations of the potential energy density lead to effective mean-fields for time-like gluons and an effective gluon-gluon interaction strength at low density. The latter yields a simpl…
Asymptotic Freedom and Vacuum Polarization Determine the Astrophysical End State of Relativistic Gravitational Collapse: Quark--Gluon Plasma Star Instead of Black Hole
Colciencias National Program for Basic Sciences, Space Science（Colciencias 基础科学国家计划，空间科学）；Valencia International University（瓦伦西亚国际大学）；Escuela de Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Colombia（哥伦比亚国立大学物理学院）；Instituto de Fisica, Universidad de Antioquia（安蒂奥基亚大学物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学物理与天文学系）
It is shown that in ideal relativistic hydrodynamics a phase transition from hadron to quark and gluon degrees of freedom in the nuclear matter equation of state leads to a minimum in the excitation function of the transverse collective flow.
In high energy heavy-ion collisions, the degrees of freedom at the very early stage can be effectively represented by strong classical gluonic fields within the Color Glass Condensate framework. As the system expands, the strong gluonic fields eventually become weak such that an equivalent description using the gluonic particle degrees of freedom starts to become valid. We revisit the spectrum of these gluonic particles by solving the classical Yang-Mills equations semi-analytically with the solutions having the form of power series expansions in the proper time. We propose a different formula…
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 consider our recently obtained general structure of two point (self-energy and propagator) functions of quarks and gluons in a nontrivial background like a heat bath and an external magnetic field. Based on this, here we have computed free energy and pressure of quarks and gluons for a magnetized hot and dense deconfined QCD matter in weak field approximation. For heat bath we have used hard thermal loop perturbation theory (HTLpt) in presence of finite chemical potential. For weak field approximations we have obtained the pressure of QCD matter, both with and without the high temperature e…
We present an analysis of the dynamics of two-flavour QCD in the vacuum. Special attention is payed to the transition from the high energy quark-gluon regime to the low energy regime governed by hadron dynamics. This is done within a functional renormalisation group approach to QCD amended by dynamical hadronisation techniques. The latter allow us to describe conveniently the transition from the perturbative high-energy regime to the nonperturbative low-energy limit without suffering from a fine-tuning of model parameters. In the present work, we apply these techniques to two-flavour QCD with …
We describe some of the recent progress in the calculation of thermodynamic quantities in QCD at high temperatures and densities by weak-coupling techniques and extrapolation to realistic coupling strength. We argue that a (mostly) weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma at temperatures only a few times the transition temperature is not yet ruled out by the observed fast apparent thermalization at RHIC, as nonabelian plasma instabilities might provide an efficient mechanism for fast isotropization even in a collisionless plasma.
We revisit the physical pictures for the hadronization of quark-gluon plasma, concentrating on the problem of entropy production during processes where the number of degrees of freedom is seemingly reduced due to color confinement. Based on observations on Regge trajectories we propose not having an infinite tower of hadronic resonances. We discuss possible entropy production mechanisms far from equilibrium in terms of stochastic dynamics.
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interactions. We review descriptions of hadronic systems motivated by QCD, analyzing the recent controversy between gluonic and bosonic degrees of freedom under the prism of the Cheshire Cat Principle. Our analysis leads to an optimal scheme to study hadronic properties. We proceed to extend this low energy descriptions to the deep inelastic regime.
The azimuthal anisotropies of the collective transverse flow of hadrons are investigated in a large range of heavy-ion collision energy within the Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) microscopic transport approach which incorporates explicit partonic degrees of freedom in terms of strongly interacting quasiparticles (quarks and gluons) in line with an equation-of-state from lattice QCD as well as dynamical hadronization and hadronic dynamics in the final reaction phase. The experimentally observed increase of the elliptic flow $v_2$ with bombarding energy is successfully described in terms of…
The existing experimental data for the deuteron charge radius are discussed. The data of elastic electron scattering are inconsistent with the value obtained in a recent atomic physics experiment. Theoretical predictions based on a nonrelativistic description of the deuteron with realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials and with a rather complete set of meson-exchange contributions to the charge operator are presented. Corrections arising from the quark-gluon substructure of the nucleon are explored in a nonrelativistic quark model; the quark-gluon corrections, not accounted for by meson exchange,…
The energy loss of a fast parton scattering elastically in a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma is formulated as an initial value problem. The approach is designed to study an unstable plasma, but it reproduces the well known result in the case of an equilibrium plasma. Contributions to the energy loss due to unstable modes are shown to exponentially grow in time. An unstable two-stream system is considered as an example.
We investigate the electromagnetic response of a viscous quark-gluon plasma in the framework of the relativistic Boltzmann equation with current conserving collision term. Our formalism incorporates dissipative effects at all orders in linear response to the electromagnetic field while accounting for the full space- and time-dependence of the perturbing fields. As an example, we consider the collision of two nuclei in a stationary, homogeneous quark-gluon plasma. We show that for large collision energies the induced magnetic fields are governed by the response of quark-gluon plasma along the l…
We solve a leading-order QCD kinetic theory with light quarks and gluon degrees of freedom to study the non-equilibrium dynamics of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). By including both elastic and inelastic scatterings for quarks and gluon, the model is proficient to describe kinetic and chemical equilibration of the QGP, and thus connects the initial (semi-) hard production of partons at early times with the hydrodynamic description of a near-thermalized quark-gluon plasma after the first fm/c of the collision. Within this approach, we investigate the time scales and mechanisms for kinetic and che…
Inspired by Laughlin's theory of the fractional quantum Hall effect, we explore the topological nature of the quark-gluon plasma and the nucleons in the context of the Clifford algebra. In our model, each quark is transformed into a composite particle via the simultaneous attachment of a spin monopole and an isospin monopole. This is induced by a novel kind of meson endowed with both spin and isospin degrees of freedom. The interactions in the strongly coupled quark-gluon system are governed by the topological winding number of the monopoles, which is an odd integer to ensure that the overall …
The energy loss per unit path length of a highly energetic parton scattering elastically in a weakly coupled quark-gluon plasma is studied as an initial value problem. The approach is designed to study unstable plasmas but in the case of an equilibrium plasma the well known result is reproduced. As an example of an unstable system, an extremely prolate plasma, where the momentum distribution is infinitely elongated along one direction, is considered here. The energy loss is shown to be strongly time and directionally dependent and its magnitude can much exceed the energy loss in equilibrium pl…
In this article we report on our results about quark production and chemical equilibration of quark-gluon plasma. Our initial condition corresponds to a classic Yang-Mills spectrum, in which only gluon degrees of freedom are considered; the initial condition is then evolved to a quark-gluon plasma by means of relativistic transport theory with inelastic processes which permit the conversion of gluons to $q\bar{q}$ pairs. We then compare our results to the ones obtained with a standard Glauber model initialization. We find that regardless of the initial condition the final stage of the system c…
Parton-parton collisions do not neutralize local color charges in the quark-gluon plasma as they only redistribute the charges among momentum modes. We discuss color diffusion and color conductivity as the processes responsible for the neutralization of the plasma. For this purpose, we first compute the conductivity and diffusion coefficients in the plasma that is significantly colorful. Then, the time evolution of the color density due to the conductivity and diffusion is studied. The conductivity is shown to be much more efficient than the diffusion in neutralizing the plasma at the scale lo…
The width $ΔT$ of the deconfinement transition region is shown to influence strongly the flow structure in the (Landau-) hydrodynamical expansion of a quark-gluon plasma. For a sharp first order transition ($ΔT=0$) the mixed phase is rather long-lived, with a lifetime that has a maximum when the initial energy density is at the phase boundary between mixed and pure quark-gluon matter. For increasing $ΔT$, however, the lifetime decreases rapidly. Hadronic matter, however, remains long-lived as a consequence of the rapid change in the degrees of freedom in the transition region and the correspon…
We present the complete physical picture for the evolution of a high-energy jet propagating through a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) by analytical and numerical investigation of thermalization of the soft components of the jet. Our results support the following physical picture: the leading particle emits a significant number of mini-jets which promptly evolve via multiple branching and thus degrade into a myriad of soft gluons, with energies of the order of the medium temperature $T$. Via elastic collisions with the medium constituents, these soft gluons relax to local thermal equili…
Dynamical quasiparticle properties are determined from lattice QCD along the line of the Peshier model for the running strong coupling constant in case of three light flavors. By separating time-like and space-like quantities in the number density and energy density the effective degrees of freedom in the gluon and quark sector may be specified from the time-like densities. The space-like parts of the energy densities are identified with interaction energy (or potential energy) densities. By using the time-like parton densities (or scalar densities) as independent degrees of freedom variations…
We consider the transition from quark to hadronic matter which may result during the cooling/expansion of the quark-gluon plasma formed in energetic collisions of weakly isospin-asymmetric ions. This transition involves the energy density of u and d quark matter and the one of nearly isospin-symmetric nuclear matter. Within bag models, the former entails knowledge of the bag pressure, a poorly constrained quantity. The bag pressure at high density can be fixed imposing equality of quark and nucleonic energy densities at the (assumed known) transition point. We find this value to be very model …
With high energy heavy ion collisions one tries to create a new forms of matter that is similar to the one present at the birth of our Universe. Recent development on flow pattern, initial energy-density and freeze-out temperature shows that most likely this new form of matter is in a deconfined state, has colored degrees of freedom and is more fluid-like than gas-like. In present paper we calculate estimations on the physical properties of this new-old matter.
The suppression and modification of high-energy objects, like jets, in heavy-ion collisions provide an important window to access the degrees of freedom of the quark-gluon plasma on different length scales. Despite increasingly precise and differential measurements of the properties of jets in heavy-ion collisions, however, it has remained challenging to use jets to make unambiguous and model-independent statements about the quark-gluon plasma. Here I will give a personal take on some origins of these challenges, including the difficulty of modelling and biases from jet selection that obfuscat…
