Mass-radius constraints for compact stars and a critical endpoint

We present two types of models for hybrid compact stars composed of a quark core and a hadronic mantle with an abrupt first order phase transition at the interface which are in accordance with the latest astrophysical measurements of two 2 M_sun pulsars. While the first is a schematic one, the second one is based on a QCD motivated nonlocal PNJL model with density-dependent vector coupling strength. Both models support the possibility of so called twin compact stars which have the same mass but different radius and internal structure at high mass (~2 M_sun), provided they exhibit a large jump \Delta \epsilon in the energy density of the first order phase transition fulfilling \Delta \epsilon/\epsilon_crit > 0.6. We conclude that the measurement of high-mass twin stars would support the existence of a first order phase transition in symmetric matter at zero temperature entailing the existence of a critical end point in the QCD phase diagram.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, prepared for the Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on "Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement",March 11 to 15, 2013, Napa, California, US

A New Approach to Non-Commutative U(N) Gauge Fields

Based on the recently introduced model of arXiv:0912.2634 for non-commutative U(1) gauge fields, a generalized version of that action for U(N) gauge fields is put forward. In this approach to non-commutative gauge field theories, UV/IR mixing effects are circumvented by introducing additional 'soft breaking' terms in the action which implement an IR damping mechanism. The techniques used are similar to those of the well-known Gribov-Zwanziger approach to QCD.Comment: 11 pages; v2 minor correction

η\eta and η′\eta' mesons in the Dyson-Schwinger approach at finite temperature

We study the temperature dependence of the pseudoscalar meson properties in a relativistic bound-state approach exhibiting the chiral behavior mandated by QCD. Concretely, we adopt the Dyson-Schwinger approach with a rank-2 separable model interaction. After extending the model to the strange sector and fixing its parameters at zero temperature, T=0, we study the T-dependence of the masses and decay constants of all ground-state mesons in the pseudoscalar nonet. Of chief interest are $\eta$ and $\eta^\prime$. The influence of the QCD axial anomaly on them is successfully obtained through the Witten-Veneziano relation at T=0. The same approach is then extended to T>0, using lattice QCD results for the topological susceptibility. The most conspicuous finding is an increase of the $\eta^\prime$ mass around the chiral restoration temperature $T_{\rm Ch}$, which would suggest a suppression of $\eta^\prime$ production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The increase of the $\eta^\prime$ mass may also indicate that the extension of the Witten-Veneziano relation to finite temperatures becomes unreliable around and above $T_{\rm Ch}$. Possibilities of an improved treatment are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 15 figure

Hadronic Spectral Function and Charm Meson Production

At the chiral restoration/deconfinement transition, most hadrons undergo a Mott transition from being bound states in the confined phase to resonances in the deconfined phase. We investigate the consequences of this qualitative change in the hadron spectrum on final state interactions of charmonium in hot and dense matter, and show that the Mott effect for D-mesons leads to a critical enhancement of the J/Psi dissociation rate. Anomalous J/Psi suppression in the NA50 experiment is discussed as well as the role of the Mott effect for the heavy flavor kinetics in future experiments at the LHC. The status of our calculations of hadron-hadron cross sections using the quark interchange and chiral Lagrangian approaches is reviewed, and an Ansatz for a unification of these schemes is given.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of the Budapest'02 Workshop on Quark & Hadron Dynamics, Budapest, Hungary, March 3-7, 200