Quark-Gluon Plasma Fireball

Lattice-QCD results provide an opportunity to model, and extrapolate to finite baryon density, the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Upon fixing the scale of the thermal coupling constant and vacuum energy to the lattice data, the properties of resulting QGP equations of state (EoS) are developed. We show that the physical properties of the dense matter fireball formed in heavy ion collision experiments at CERN-SPS are well described by the QGP-EoS we presented. We also estimate the properties of the fireball formed in early stages of nuclear collision, and argue that QGP formation must be expected down to 40A GeV in central Pb--Pb interactions.Comment: 10 pages, 9 postscript figures, 1 table, uses revtex, V3: introduced difference between n_f and n_s; fireball restframe energy corrected, references added. Publisched version in press Phys. Rev.

A model for the time uncertainty measurements in the Auger surface detector array

The precise determination of the arrival direction of cosmic rays is a fundamental prerequisite for the search for sources or the study of their anisotropies on the sky. One of the most important aspects to achieve an optimal measurement of these directions is to properly take into account the measurement uncertainties in the estimation procedure. In this article we present a model for the uncertainties associated with the time measurements in the Auger surface detector array. We show that this model represents well the measurement uncertainties and therefore provides the basis for an optimal determination of the arrival direction. With this model and a description of the shower front geometry it is possible to estimate, on an event by event basis, the uncertainty associated with the determination of the arrival directions of the cosmic rays

Gluon production, cooling and entropy in nuclear collisions

We study the cooling (heating) of a glue-parton gas due to production (destruction) of particles and determine the associated production of entropy. We incorporate sharing of the system energy among a changing number of particles. We find that the entropy of an evolving glue-parton gas changes in an insignificant range once the initial high temperature state has been formed, despite a great change in particle number and temperature.Comment: Replaced for bad printing on US paper. 7 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figure

Theoretical and Experimental Topics on Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays

Since their first observation in 1962, the existence of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) remains a mystery in modern astrophysics. Those cosmic rays, with energies well above 50 EeV ($50\times 10^{18}$eV), can hardly be accelerated, even in the most active parts of our universe such as FR-II radio galaxies or AGNs, nor can they travel on distances larger than 100 Mpc. In the following some of the production and acceleration models for UHECR are reviewed and some of the transport issues are exposed. Finally the detection and identification on Earth of those ``cosmic bullets'' are presented.Comment: 46 pages, 16 figures. Lecture given at the XXVIII International Meeting on Fundamental Physics, Sanlucar de Barameda, Cadiz Spain, 14-18 February 200

Strangeness and Particle Freeze-out in Nuclear Collisions at 14.6 Gev a

We study the chemical conditions at freeze-out associated with the production of strange-particles in Si-Au collisions at 14.6 GeV A. We obtain freeze-out chemical potentials and temperature, and determine the entropy as well as the final particle abundance. We also consider in detail the alternative evolution scenarios involving the hadronic gas and the deconfined phase.Comment: 12 pages, LaTeX, 3 postscript figure

Observing Quark-Gluon Plasma with Strange Hadrons

We review the methods and results obtained in an analysis of the experimental heavy ion collision research program at nuclear beam energy of 160-200A GeV. We study strange, and more generally, hadronic particle production experimental data. We discuss present expectations concerning how these observables will perform at other collision energies. We also present the dynamical theory of strangeness production and apply it to show that it agrees with available experimental results. We describe strange hadron production from the baryon-poor quark-gluon phase formed at much higher reaction energies, where the abundance of strange baryons and antibaryons exceeds that of nonstrange baryons and antibaryons.Comment: 39 journal pages (155kb text), 8 postscript figures, 8 table

An Estimate of the Spectral Intensity Expected from the Molecular Bremsstrahlung Radiation in Extensive Air Showers

A detection technique of ultra-high energy cosmic rays, complementary to the fluorescence technique, would be the use of the molecular Bremsstrahlung radiation emitted by low-energy electrons left after the passage of the showers in the atmosphere. The emission mechanism is expected from quasi-elastic collisions of electrons produced in the shower by the ionisation of the molecules in the atmosphere. In this article, a detailed calculation of the spectral intensity of photons at ground level originating from the transitions between unquantised energy states of free ionisation electrons is presented. In the absence of absorption of the emitted photons in the plasma, the obtained spectral intensity is shown to be 5 10^{-26} W m^{-2}Hz^{-1} at 10 km from the shower core for a vertical shower induced by a proton of 10^{17.5} eV.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted in Astroparticle Physics. Compared to v1 version: 1. Inclusion of ro-vibrational processes. 2. Use of more accurate ionization potential values and energy distribution of the secondary electron

Heavy Flavor Hadrons in Statistical Hadronization of Strangeness-rich QGP

We study b, c quark hadronization from QGP. We obtain the yields of charm and bottom flavored hadrons within the statistical hadronization model. The important novel feature of this study is that we take into account the high strangeness and entropy content of QGP, conserving strangeness and entropy yields at hadronization.Comment: v2 expended: 20 pages, 23 figures, 5 tables, in press EPJ-