Remarks concerning bulk viscosity of hadron matter in relaxation time ansatz

The bulk viscosity is calculated for hadron matter produced in heavy-ion collisions, being described in the relaxation time approximation withi n the relativistic mean- field-based model with scaled hadron masses and couplings. W e show how different approximations used in the literature affect the result. Nume rical evaluations of the bulk viscosity with three considered models deviate not much from each other confirming earlier results.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Fractional exclusion statistics applied to relativistic nuclear matter

The effect of statistics of the quasiparticles in the nuclear matter at extreme conditions of density and temperature is evaluated in the relativistic mean-field model generalized to the framework of the fractional exclusion statistics (FES). In the model, the nucleons are described as quasiparticles obeying FES and the model parameters were chosen to reproduce the ground state properties of the isospin-symmetric nuclear matter. In this case, the statistics of the quasiparticles is related to the strengths of the nucleon-nucleon interaction mediated by the neutral scalar and vector meson fields. The relevant thermodynamic quantities were calculated as functions of the nucleons density, temperature and fractional exclusion statistics parameter $\alpha$. It has been shown that at high temperatures and densities the thermodynamics of the system has a strong dependence on the statistics of the particles. The scenario in which the nucleon-nucleon interaction strength is independent of the statistics of particles was also calculated, but it leads in general to unstable thermodynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Lattice QCD Constraints on the Nuclear Equation of State

Based on the quasi-particle description of the QCD medium at finite temperature and density we formulate the phenomenological model for the equation of state that exhibits crossover or the first order deconfinement phase transition. The models are constructed in such a way to be thermodynamically consistent and to satisfy the properties of the ground state nuclear matter comply with constraints from intermediate heavy--ion collision data. Our equations of states show quite reasonable agreement with the recent lattice findings on temperature and baryon chemical potential dependence of relevant thermodynamical quantities in the parameter range covering both the hadronic and quark--gluon sectors. The model predictions on the isentropic trajectories in the phase diagram are shown to be consistent with the recent lattice results. Our nuclear equations of states are to be considered as an input to the dynamical models describing the production and the time evolution of a thermalized medium created in heavy ion collisions in a broad energy range from SIS up to LHC.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Shear viscosity of the Quark-Gluon Plasma from a virial expansion

We calculate the shear viscosity $\eta$ in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) phase within a virial expansion approach with particular interest in the ratio of $\eta$ to the entropy density $s$, i.e. $\eta/s$. The virial expansion approach allows us to include the interactions between the partons in the deconfined phase and to evaluate the corrections to a single-particle partition function. In the latter approach we start with an effective interaction with parameters fixed to reproduce thermodynamical quantities of QCD such as energy and/or entropy density. We also directly extract the effective coupling \ga_{\rm V} for the determination of $\eta$. Our numerical results give a ratio $\eta/s\approx 0.097$ at the critical temperature $T_{\rm c}$, which is very close to the theoretical bound of $1/(4\pi)$. Furthermore, for temperatures $T\leq 1.8 T_{\rm c}$ the ratio $\eta/s$ is in the range of the present experimental estimates $0.1-0.3$ at RHIC. When combining our results for $\eta/s$ in the deconfined phase with those from chiral perturbation theory or the resonance gas model in the confined phase we observe a pronounced minimum of $\eta/s$ close to the critical temperature $T_{\rm c}$.Comment: Published in Eur. Phys. J. C, 7 pages, 2 figures, 3 tabl

Equation of State for Hot and Dense Matter: σ\sigma-ω\omega-ρ\rho Model with Scaled Hadron Masses and Couplings

The proposed earlier relativistic mean-field model with hadron masses and coupling constants depending on the $\sigma$-meson field is generalized to finite temperatures. Within this approach we simulate the in-medium behavior of the hadron masses motivated by the Brown-Rho scaling. The high-lying baryon resonances and boson excitations as well as excitations of the $\sigma$, $\omega$ and $\rho$ fields interacting via mean fields are incorporated into this scheme. Thermodynamic properties of hot and dense hadronic matter are elaborated with the constructed equation of state. Even at zero baryon density, effective masses of $\sigma$-$\omega$-$\rho$-$N$ excitations abruptly drop down for T\gsim 170 MeV and reach zero at a critical temperature $T=T_{c\sigma}\sim 210$ MeV. Below $T_{c\sigma}$ (at $T\sim 190$ MeV) the specific heat gets a peak like at crossover. We demonstrate that our EoS can be matched with that computed on the lattice for high temperatures provided the baryon resonance couplings with nucleon are partially suppressed. In this case the quark liquid would masquerade as the hadron one. The model is applied to description of heavy ion collisions in a broad collision energy range. It might be especially helpful for studying phase diagram in the region near possible phase transitions.Comment: 53 pages, 16 figures; minor changes made, references adde

Percolation of Color Sources and the Shear Viscosity of the QGP in Central A-A Collisions at RHIC and LHC Energies

The Color String Percolation Model (CSPM) is used to determine the shear viscosity to entropy ratio ($\eta/s$) of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) produced in Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV at RHIC and Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV at LHC. The relativistic kinetic theory relation for $\eta/s$ is evaluated using CSPM values for the temperature and the mean free path of the QGP constituents. The experimental charged hadron transverse momentum spectrum is used to determine the percolation density parameter $\xi$ in Au-Au collisions (STAR). For Pb-Pb at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV $\xi$ values are obtained from the extrapolation at RHIC energy. The value of $\eta/s$ is 0.204$\pm$0.020 and 0.262$\pm$0.026 at the CSPM initial temperatures of 193.6$\pm$3 MeV (RHIC) and 262.2 $\pm$13 MeV (LHC) respectively. These values are 2.5 and 3.3 times the AdS/CFT conjectured lower bound $1/4\pi$. We compare the CSPM $\eta/s$ analytic expression with weak coupling (wQGP) and strong coupling (sQGP) calculations. This indicates that the QGP is a strongly coupled fluid in the phase transition region.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures Accepted for publication in European Physical Journal C (Particles & Fields

Hadron rapidity spectra within a hybrid model

A multistage hybrid model is constructed what joins the initial non-equilibrium stage of interaction, described by the hadron string dynamics (HSD) model, to subsequent evolution of the expanding system treated within ideal hydrodynamics (the second stage). Particles can still rescatter after hydrodynamical expansion that is the third interaction stage. The developed hybrid model is assigned to describe heavy-ion collisions in the energy range of the NICA collider. Generally, the model is in reasonable agreement with the available data on proton rapidity spectra