Modification of Z Boson Properties in Quark-Gluon Plasma

We calculate the change in the effective mass and width of a Z boson in the environment of a quark-gluon plasma under the conditions expected in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. The change in width is predicted to be only about 1 MeV at a temperature of 1 GeV, compared to the natural width of 2490$\pm$7 MeV. The mass shift is even smaller. Hence no observable effects are to be expected.Comment: 7 pages latex file with 6 embedded PS figure

Nucleus-Nucleus Bremsstrahlung from Ultrarelativistic Collisions

The bremsstrahlung produced when heavy nuclei collide is estimated for central collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Soft photons can be used to infer the rapidity distribution of the outgoing charge. An experimental design is outlined.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, uses revte

On the imaginary parts and infrared divergences of two-loop vector boson self-energies in thermal QCD

We calculate the imaginary part of the retarded two-loop self-energy of a static vector boson in a plasma of quarks and gluons of temperature T, using the imaginary time formalism. We recombine various cuts of the self-energy to generate physical processes. We demonstrate how cuts containing loops may be reinterpreted in terms of interference between Order $\alpha$ tree diagrams and the Born term along with spectators from the medium. We apply our results to the rate of dilepton production in the limit of dilepton invariant mass E>>T. We find that all infrared and collinear singularities cancel in the final result obtained in this limit.Comment: references added, typos corrected, slightly abridged, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Rescattering Effects on Intensity Interferometry

We derive a general formula for the correlation function of two identical particles with the inclusion of multiple elastic scatterings in the medium in which the two particles are produced. This formula involves the propagator of the particle in the medium. As illustration of the effect we apply the formula to the special case where the scatterers are static, localized 2-body potentials. In this illustration both $R^2_{\rm side}$ and $R^2_{\rm out}$ are increased by an amount proportional to the square of the spatial density of scatterers and to the differential cross section. Specific numbers are used to show the expected magnitude of the rescattering effect on kaon interferometry.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Acoustics of tachyon Fermi gas

We consider a Fermi gas of free tachyons as a continuous medium and find whether it satisfies the causality condition. There is no stable tachyon matter with the particle density below critical value $n_T$ and the Fermi momentum $k_F<\sqrt{\frac 32}m$ that depends on the tachyon mass $m$. The pressure $P$ and energy density $E$ cannot be arbitrary small, but the situation $P>E$ is not forbidden. Existence of shock waves in tachyon gas is also discussed. At low density $n_T<n<3.45n_T$ the tachyon matter remains stable but no shock wave do survive.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures (color

Color-superconductivity in the strong-coupling regime of Landau gauge QCD

The chirally unbroken and the superconducting 2SC and CFL phases are investigated in the chiral limit within a Dyson-Schwinger approach for the quark propagator in QCD. The hierarchy of Green's functions is truncated such that at vanishing density known results for the vacuum and at asymptotically high densities the corresponding weak-coupling expressions are recovered. The anomalous dimensions of the gap functions are analytically calculated. Based on the quark propagator the phase structure is studied, and results for the gap functions, occupation numbers, coherence lengths and pressure differences are given and compared with the corresponding expressions in the weak-coupling regime. At moderate chemical potentials the quasiparticle pairing gaps are several times larger than the extrapolated weak-coupling results.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures; v2: one reference adde

Elastic energy loss and longitudinal straggling of a hard jet

The elastic energy loss encountered by jets produced in deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus is studied in the collinear limit. In close analogy to the case of (non-radiative) transverse momentum broadening, which is dependent on the medium transport coefficient $\hat{q}$, a class of medium enhanced higher twist operators which contribute to the non-radiative loss of the forward light-cone momentum of the jet ($q^-$) are identified and the leading correction in the limit of asymptotically high $q^-$ is isolated. Based on these operator products, a new transport coefficient $\hat{e}$ is motivated which quantifies the energy loss per unit length encountered by the hard jet. These operator products are then computed, explicitly, in the case of a similar hard jet traversing a deconfined quark-gluon-plasma (QGP) in the hard-thermal-loop (HTL) approximation. This is followed by an evaluation of sub-leading contributions which are suppressed by the light-cone momentum $q^-$, which yields the longitudinal "straggling" i.e., a slight change in light cone momentum due to the Brownian propagation through a medium with a fluctuating color field.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, Revtex

Chiral Magnetic conductivity

Gluon field configurations with nonzero topological charge generate chirality, inducing P- and CP-odd effects. When a magnetic field is applied to a system with nonzero chirality, an electromagnetic current is generated along the direction of the magnetic field. The induced current is equal to the Chiral Magnetic conductivity times the magnetic field. In this article we will compute the Chiral Magnetic conductivity of a high-temperature plasma for nonzero frequencies. This allows us to discuss the effects of time-dependent magnetic fields, such as produced in heavy ion collisions, on chirally asymmetric systems.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Hard thermal loops with a background plasma velocity

I consider the calculation of the two and three-point functions for QED at finite temperature in the presence of a background plasma velocity. The final expressions are consistent with Lorentz invariance, gauge invariance and current conservation, pointing to a straightforward generalization of the hard thermal loop formalism to this physical situation. I also give the resulting expression for the effective action and identify the various terms.Comment: 11 pages, no figure