Probing the QCD phase diagram with fluctuations

The relevance of higher order cumulants of conserved charges for the analysis of freeze-out and critical conditions in heavy ion collisions at LHC and RHIC is discussed. Using properties of $O(4)$ scaling functions, the generic structure of these higher cumulants at vanishing baryon chemical potential is discussed. Chiral model calculations are then used to study their properties at non-zero baryon chemical potential. It is argued that the rapid variation of sixth and higher order cumulants at the phase boundary may be used to explore the QCD phase diagram in experiment. Moreover, results for the Polyakov loop susceptibilities in SU(3) lattice gauge theory as well as in (2+1) flavor lattice QCD are discussed. An analysis of the ratios of susceptibilities indicates that the deconfinement transition is reflected in characteristic modifications of these ratios.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. To appear in the G.E. Brown memorial volume in NP

P-Wave Polarization of the ρ\rho-Meson and the Dilepton Spectrum in Dense Matter

We study the $p$-wave polarization operator of the $\rho$-meson due to $\rho N$ interactions via the $N^*$ (1720) and $\Delta (1905)$ resonances and compute the corresponding production rate for $e^+e^-$-pairs at finite temperature and baryon density. At high baryon density we find a significant shift of the spectrum to lower invariant masses.Comment: 22 pages, 8 Postscript figures, uses article.sty, epsf.sty, epsfig.st

Phase transitions at finite density

I discuss the analytic structure of thermodynamic quantities for complex values of thermodynamic variables within Landau theory. In particular, the singularities connected with phase transitions of second order, first order and cross over types are examined. A conformal mapping is introduced, which may be used to explore the thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter at finite values of the baryon chemical potential $\mu$ starting from lattice QCD results at $\mu^{2}\leq 0$. This method allows us to improve the convergence of a Taylor expansion about $\mu=0$ and to enhance the sensitivity to physical singularities in the complex $\mu$ plane. The technique is illustrated by an application to a second-order transition in a chiral effective model.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, Presented at the HIC for FAIR Workshop and XXVIII Max Born Symposium "Three days on Quarkyonic Island", Wroclaw, Poland, 19-21 May, 2011, reference corrected, two typos correcte

Weak and strong coupling limits of the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation-time approximation

We consider a momentum dependent relaxation time for the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation. We employ a power law parametrization for the momentum dependence of the relaxation time, and calculate the shear and bulk viscosity, as well as, the charge and heat conductivity. We show, that for the two popular parametrizations, referred to as the linear and quadratic ansatz, one can obtain transport coefficients which corresponds to the weak and strong coupling regimes, respectively. We also show that, for a system of massless particles with vanishing chemical potential, the off-equilibrium corrections to the phase-space distribution function calculated with the quadratic ansatz are identical with those of the Grad's 14-moment method.Comment: 6 page

Relativistic second-order dissipative hydrodynamics at finite chemical potential

Starting from the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation and employing a Chapman-Enskog like expansion for the distribution function close to equilibrium, we derive second-order evolution equations for the shear stress tensor and the dissipative charge current for a system of massless quarks and gluons. The transport coefficients are obtained exactly using quantum statistics for the phase space distribution functions at non-zero chemical potential. We show that, within the relaxation time approximation, the second-order evolution equations for the shear stress tensor and the dissipative charge current can be decoupled. We find that, for large values of the ratio of chemical potential to temperature, the charge conductivity is small compared to the coefficient of shear viscosity. Moreover, we show that in the relaxation-time approximation, the limiting behaviour of the ratio of heat conductivity to shear viscosity is qualitatively similar to that obtained for a strongly coupled conformal plasma.Comment: v3: 6 pages, 2 figure, published versio

Criticality of the net-baryon number probability distribution at finite density

We compute the probability distribution $P(N)$ of the net-baryon number at finite temperature and quark-chemical potential, $\mu$, at a physical value of the pion mass in the quark-meson model within the functional renormalization group scheme. For $\mu/T<1$, the model exhibits the chiral crossover transition which belongs to the universality class of the $O(4)$ spin system in three dimensions. We explore the influence of the chiral crossover transition on the properties of the net baryon number probability distribution, $P(N)$. By considering ratios of $P(N)$ to the Skellam function, with the same mean and variance, we unravel the characteristic features of the distribution that are related to $O(4)$ criticality at the chiral crossover transition. We explore the corresponding ratios for data obtained at RHIC by the STAR Collaboration and discuss their implications. We also examine $O(4)$ criticality in the context of binomial and negative-binomial distributions for the net proton number.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys.Lett.

Polarization and dilepton anisotropy in pion-nucleon collisions

Hadronic polarization and the related anisotropy of the dilepton angular distribution are studied for the reaction $\pi N \rightarrow Ne^+ e^-$. We employ consistent effective interactions for baryon resonances up to spin-5/2, where non-physical degrees of freedom are eliminated, to compute the anisotropy coefficients for isolated intermediate baryon resonances. It is shown that the spin and parity of the intermediate baryon resonance is reflected in the angular dependence of the anisotropy coefficient. We then compute the anisotropy coefficient including the $N(1520)$ and $N(1440)$ resonances, which are essential at the collision energy of the recent data obtained by the HADES collaboration on this reaction. We conclude that the anisotropy coefficient provides useful constraints for unravelling the resonance contributions to this process.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Modeling chiral criticality and its consequences for heavy-ion collisions

We explore the critical fluctuations near the chiral critical endpoint (CEP) in a chiral effective model and discuss possible signals of the CEP, recently explored experimentally in nuclear collision. Particular attention is paid to the dependence of such signals on the location of the phase boundary and the CEP relative to the chemical freeze-out conditions in nuclear collisions. We argue that in effective models, standard freeze-out fits to heavy-ion data should not be used directly. Instead, the relevant quantities should be examined on lines in the phase diagram that are defined self-consistently, within the framework of the model. We discuss possible choices for such an approach.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the Quark Matter 2015 proceeding

Polyakov loop fluctuations and deconfinement in the limit of heavy quarks

We explore the influence of heavy quarks on the deconfinement phase transition in an effective model for gluons interacting with dynamical quarks in color SU(3). With decreasing quark mass, the strength of the explicit breaking of the Z(3) symmetry grows and the first-order transition ends in a critical endpoint. The nature of the critical endpoint is examined by studying the longitudinal and transverse fluctuations of the Polyakov loop, quantified by the corresponding susceptibilities. The longitudinal susceptibility is enhanced in the critical region, while the transverse susceptibility shows a monotonic behavior across the transition point. We investigate the dependence of the critical endpoint on the number of quark flavors at vanishing and finite quark density. Finally we confront the model results with lattice calculations and discuss a possible link between the hopping parameter and the quark mass.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure

Probing deconfinement in the Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model at imaginary chemical potential

The phase structure of Polyakov-loop extended Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model is explored at imaginary chemical potential, with particular emphasis on the deconfinement transition. We point out that the statistical confinement nature of the model naturally leads to characteristic dependence of the chiral condensate $$ on $\theta=\mu_I/T$. We introduce a dual parameter for the deconfinement transition by making use of this dependence. By changing a four-fermion coupling constant, we tune the location of the critical endpoint of the deconfinement transition.Comment: Talk presented at "Three Days on Quarkyonic Island", HIC for FAIR workshop and XXVIII Max Born Symposium, Wroclaw, 19-21 May 2011. 10 pages, 6 figure