Elliptic flow of the dilute Fermi gas: From kinetics to hydrodynamics

We use the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation to study the expansion of a dilute Fermi gas at unitarity. We focus, in particular, on the approach to the hydrodynamic limit. Our main finding are: i) In the regime that has been studied experimentally hydrodynamic effects beyond the Navier-Stokes approximation are small, ii) mean field corrections to the Boltzmann equation are not important, iii) experimental data imply that freezeout occurs very late, that means that the relaxation time remains smaller than the expansion time during the entire evolution of the system, iv) the experimental results also imply that the bulk viscosity is significantly smaller than the shear viscosity of the system.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure

Thermal Dimuon Yields at NA60

Dilepton emission rates from a hadronic gas at finite temperature and baryon density are completely constrained by broken chiral symmetry in a density expansion. The rates can be expressed in terms of vacuum correlations which are measured in $e^+e^-$ annihilation, $\tau$ decays and photo-reactions on nucleons and nuclei. In this paper, the theoretical results are summarized and the total dimuon yield is calculated by integrating the dimuon rates over the space-time history of a fireball based on hydrodynamic calculations with CERN SPS conditions. The resulting dimuon yield is in good agreement with the recent measurements reported by NA60.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Toward parton equilibration with improved parton interaction matrix elements

The Quark-Gluon Plasma can be produced in high energy heavy ion collisions and how it equilibrates is important for the extraction of the properties of strongly interacting matter. A radiative transport model can be used to reveal interesting characteristics of Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization. For example, screened parton interactions always lead to partial pressure isotropization. Systems with different initial pressure anisotropies evolve toward the same asymptotic evolution. In particular, radiative processes are crucial for the chemical equilibration of the system. Matrix elements under the soft and collinear approximation for these processes, as first derived by Gunion and Bertsch, are widely used. A different approach is to start with the exact matrix elements for the two to three and its inverse processes. General features of this approach will be reviewed and the results will be compared with the Gunion-Bertsch results. We will comment on the possible implications of the exact matrix element approach on Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization.Comment: Presented at the 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, 27 May-1 June 201

Production of Photons and Dileptons in the Glasma

We study the production of photons and dileptons during the pre-equilibrium Glasma stage in heavy ion collisions and discuss the implications in light of the PHENIX data. We find that the measured distributions of such electromagnetic emissions, while having some features not well understood if hypothesized to entirely arise from a thermalized Quark-Gluon Plasma, have some qualitative features that might be described after including effects from a thermalizing Glasma. The shape and centrality dependence of the transverse momentum spectra of the so-called "thermal photons" are well described. The mass and transverse momentum dependence of intermediate mass dileptons also agree with our estimates. The low transverse momenta from which the excessive dileptons (in low to intermediate mass region) arise is suggestive of emissions from a Bose condensate. We also predict the centrality dependence of dilepton production. Uncertainties in the current approach and improvements in the future are discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, new results and references added in v

Quarkonium above deconfinement as an open quantum system

Quarkonium at temperatures above deconfinement is modeled as an open quantum system, whose dynamics is determined not just by a potential energy and mass, but also by a drag coefficient which characterizes its interaction with the medium. The reduced density matrix for a heavy particle experiencing dissipative forces is expressed as an integral over paths in imaginary time and evaluated numerically. We demonstrate that dissipation could affect the Euclidean heavy-heavy correlators calculated in lattice simulations at temperatures just above deconfinement.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

A PNJL model in 0+1 Dimensions

We formulate the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model in 0+1 dimensions. The thermodynamics captured by the partition function yields a bulk pressure, as well as quark susceptibilities versus temperature that are similar to the ones in 3+1 dimensions. Around the transition temperature the behavior in the pressure and quark susceptibilities follows from the interplay between the lowest Matsubara frequency and the Polyakov line. The reduction to the lowest Matsubara frequency yields a matrix Model. In the presence of the Polyakov line the UV part of the Dirac spectrum features oscillations when close to the transition temperature.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

Ekpyrosis and inflationary dynamics in heavy ion collisions: the role of quantum fluctuations

We summarize recent significant progress in the development of a first-principles formalism to describe the formation and evolution of matter in very high energy heavy ion collisions. The key role of quantum fluctuations both before and after a collision is emphasized. Systematic computations are now feasible to address early time dynamics essential to quantifying properties of strongly interacting quark-gluon matter.Comment: Talk by R.V. at Quark Matter 2011, Annecy, France, May 23-28, 2011. LaTex, 4 pages; v2, final version to appear in J. Phys.

Low mass dilepton radiation at RHIC

In this work we discuss the emission of low mass dilepton radiation from a hydrodynamic evolution model of Au-Au collisions and make comparisons with recent PHENIX measurements. The dilepton emission rates from the hadronic phase are treated at finite temperature and baryon density and are completely constrained by broken chiral symmetry in a density expansion. The rates are expressed in terms of vacuum correlators which are measured in $e^+e^-$ annihilation, $\tau$ decays and photo-reactions on nucleons and nuclei. We consider two possibilities for the hadronic phase: A chemical equilibrated an off equilibrium hadronic gas. We find that while chemical off-equilibrium helps explain part of the low mass (0.15 $\leq$ M GeV $\leq$ 0.7) enhancement seen in the data there is still a large discrepancy.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figure