783 research outputs found
Chiral fermion mass and dispersion relations at finite temperature in the presence of hypermagnetic fields
We study the modifications to the real part of the thermal self-energy for
chiral fermions in the presence of a constant external hypermagnetic field. We
compute the dispersion relation for fermions occupying a given Landau level to
first order in g'^2, g^2 and g_phi^2 and to all orders in g'B, where g' and g
are the U(1)_Y and SU(2)_L couplings of the standard model, respectively, g_phi
is the fermion Yukawa coupling, and B is the hypermagnetic field strength. We
show that in the limit where the temperature is large compared to sqrt{g'B},
left- and right-handed modes acquire finite and different B-dependent masses
due to the chiral nature of their coupling with the external field. Given the
current bounds on the strength of primordial magnetic fields, we argue that the
above is the relevant scenario to study the effects of magnetic fields on the
propagation of fermions prior and during the electroweak phase transition.Comment: 11 pages 4 figures, published versio
Fermion scattering off electroweak phase transition kink walls with hypermagnetic fields
We study the scattering of fermions off a finite width kink wall during the
electroweak phase transition in the presence of a background hypermagnetic
field. We derive and solve the Dirac equation for such fermions and compute the
reflection and transmission coefficients for the case when the fermions move
from the symmetric to the broken symmetry phase. We show that the chiral nature
of the fermion coupling with the background field in the symmetric phase
generates an axial asymmetry in the scattering processes. We discuss possible
implications of such axial charge segregation for baryon number generation.Comment: 9 pages, 3 Postscript figures, uses RevTeX4. Expanded discussion,
published versio
A beam-beam monitoring detector for the MPD experiment at NICA
The Multi-Purpose Detector (MPD) is to be installed at the Nuclotron Ion
Collider fAcility (NICA) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR).
Its main goal is to study the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter
produced in heavy-ion collisions. These studies, while providing insight into
the physics of heavy-ion collisions, are relevant for improving our
understanding of the evolution of the early Universe and the formation of
neutron stars. In order to extend the MPD trigger capabilities, we propose to
include a high granularity beam-beam monitoring detector (BE-BE) to provide a
level-0 trigger signal with an expected time resolution of 30 ps. This new
detector will improve the determination of the reaction plane by the MPD
experiment, a key measurement for flow studies that provides physics insight
into the early stages of the reaction. In this work, we use simulated Au+Au
collisions at NICA energies to show the potential of such a detector to
determine the event plane resolution, providing further redundancy to the
detectors originally considered for this purpose namely, the Fast Forward
Detector (FFD) and the Hadron Calorimeter (HCAL). We also show our results for
the time resolution studies of two prototype cells carried out at the T10 beam
line at the CERN PS complex.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures. Updated to published version with added
comments and correction
Size of Fireballs Created in High Energy Lead-Lead Collisions as Inferred from Coulomb Distortions of Pion Spectra
We compute the Coulomb effects produced by an expanding, highly charged
fireball on the momentum distribution of pions. We compare our results to data
on Au+Au at 11.6 A GeV from E866 at the BNL AGS and to data on Pb+Pb at 158 A
GeV from NA44 at the CERN SPS. We conclude that the distortion of the spectra
at low transverse momentum and mid-rapidity can be explained in both
experiments by the effect of the large amount of participating charge in the
central rapidity region. By adjusting the fireball expansion velocity to match
the average transverse momentum of protons, we find a best fit when the
fireball radius is about 10 fm, as determined by the moment when the pions
undergo their last scattering. This value is common to both the AGS and CERN
experiments.Comment: Enlarged discussion, new references added, includes new analysis of
pi-/pi+ at AGS energies. 12 pages 5 figures, uses LaTex and epsfi
Disentangling Vacancy Oxidation on Metallicity-Sorted Carbon Nanotubes
Pristine single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are rather inert to O
and N, which for low doses chemisorb only on defect sites or vacancies of
the SWCNTs at the ppm level. However, very low doping has a major effect on the
electronic properties and conductivity of the SWCNTs. Already at low O
doses (80 L), the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) O 1s signal becomes
saturated, indicating nearly all the SWCNT's vacancies have been oxidized. As a
result, probing vacancy oxidation on SWCNTs via XPS yields spectra with rather
low signal-to-noise ratios, even for metallicity-sorted SWCNTs. We show that,
even under these conditions, the first principles density functional theory
calculated Kohn-Sham O 1s binding energies may be used to assign the XPS O 1s
spectra for oxidized vacancies on SWCNTs into its individual components. This
allows one to determine the specific functional groups or bonding environments
measured. We find the XPS O 1s signal is mostly due to three O-containing
functional groups on SWCNT vacancies: epoxy (CO), carbonyl
(CCO), and ketene (CCO), as ordered by abundance. Upon
oxidation of nearly all the SWCNT's vacancies, the central peak's intensity for
the metallic SWCNT sample is 60\% greater than for the semiconducting SWCNT
sample. This suggests a greater abundance of O-containing defect structures on
the metallic SWCNT sample. For both metallic and semiconducting SWCNTs, we find
O does not contribute to the measured XPS O~1s spectra
rho propagation and dilepton production at finite pion density and temperature
We study the propagation properties of the rho vector in a dense and hot pion
medium. We introduce a finite value of the chemical potential associated to a
conserved pion number and argue that such description is valid during the
hadronic phase of a relativistic heavy-ion collision, between chemical and
thermal freeze-out, where the strong interaction drives pion number to a fixed
value. By invoking vector dominance and rho saturation, we also study the
finite pion density effects into the low mass dilepton production rate. We find
that the distribution moderately widens and the position of the peak shifts
toward larger values of the pair invariant mass, at the same time that the
height of the peak decreases when the value of the chemical potential grows. We
conclude by arguing that for the description of the dilepton spectra at
ultra-relativistic energies, such as those of RHIC and LHC, the proper
treatment of the large pion density might be a more important effect to
consider than the influence of a finite baryon density.Comment: 9 pages, 11 Postscript figures, uses ReVTeX4. Expanded discussion.
References added. Published versio
Longitudinal and transverse fermion-boson vertex in QED at finite temperature in the HTL approximation
We evaluate the fermion-photon vertex in QED at the one loop level in Hard
Thermal Loop approximation and write it in covariant form. The complete vertex
can be expanded in terms of 32 basis vectors. As is well known, the
fermion-photon vertex and the fermion propagator are related through a
Ward-Takahashi Identity (WTI). This relation splits the vertex into two parts:
longitudinal (Gamma_L) and transverse (Gamma_T). Gamma_L is fixed by the WTI.
The description of the longitudinal part consumes 8 of the basis vectors. The
remaining piece Gamma_T is then written in terms of 24 spin amplitudes.
Extending the work of Ball and Chiu and Kizilersu et. al., we propose a set of
basis vectors T^mu_i(P_1,P_2) at finite temperature such that each of these is
transverse to the photon four-momentum and also satisfies T^mu_i(P,P)=0, in
accordance with the Ward Identity, with their corresponding coefficients being
free of kinematic singularities. This basis reduces to the form proposed by
Kizilersu et. al. at zero temperature. We also evaluate explicitly the
coefficient of each of these vectors at the above-mentioned level of
approximation.Comment: 13 pages, uses RevTe
Axially asymmetric fermion scattering off electroweak phase transition bubble walls with hypermagnetic fields
We show that in the presence of large scale primordial hypermagnetic fields,
it is possible to generate an axial asymmetry for a first order electroweak
phase transition. This happens during the reflection and transmission of
fermions off the true vacuum bubbles, due to the chiral nature of the fermion
coupling with the background field in the symmetric phase. We derive and solve
the Dirac equation for such fermions and compute the reflection and
transmission coefficients for the case when these fermions move from the
symmetric to the symmetry broken phase. We also comment on the possible
implications of such axial charge segregation processes for baryon number
generation.Comment: 8 pages, 2 Encapsulated Postscript figures, uses ReVTeX and
epsfig.sty, expanded discussion, version to appear in Phys. Rev.
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