Hydrodynamics near the QCD Phase Transition: Looking for the Longest-Lived Fireball

We propose a new strategy for the experimental search of the QCD phase transition in heavy ion collisions: One may tune collision energy around the point where the lifetime of the fireball is expected to be longest. We demonstrate that the hydrodynamic evolution of excited nuclear matter does change dramatically as the initial energy density goes through the "softest point" (where the pressure to energy density ratio reaches its minimum). For our choice of equation of state, this corresponds to epsilon_i approx. = 1.5 GeV/fm^3 and collision energy E_lab/A approx. = 30 GeV (for Au+Au). Various observables seem to show distinct changes near the softest point.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Postscript figures (tar compressed and uuencoded) submitte

Many-Body Corrections to Charged-Current Neutrino Absorption Rates in Nuclear Matter

Including nucleon--nucleon correlations due to both Fermi statistics and nuclear forces, we have developed a general formalism for calculating the charged--current neutrino--nucleon absorption rates in nuclear matter. We find that at one half nuclear density many--body effects alone suppress the rates by a factor of two and that the suppression factors increase to $\sim$5 at $4\times10^{14}$ g cm$^{-3}$. The associated increase in the neutrino--matter mean--free--paths parallels that found for neutral--current interactions and opens up interesting possibilities in the context of the delayed supernova mechanism and protoneutron star cooling.Comment: 11 pages, APS REVTeX format, 1 PostScript figure, uuencoded compressed, and tarred, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Concentration Dependence of the Effective Mass of He-3 Atoms in He-3/He-4 Mixtures

Recent measurements by Yorozu et al. (S. Yorozu, H. Fukuyama, and H. Ishimoto, Phys. Rev. B 48, 9660 (1993)) as well as by Simons and Mueller (R. Simons and R. M. Mueller, Czhechoslowak Journal of Physics Suppl. 46, 201 (1976)) have determined the effective mass of He-3 atoms in a He-3/He-4 mixture with great accuracy. We here report theoretical calculations for the dependence of that effective mass on the He-3 concentration. Using correlated basis functions perturbation theory to infinite order to compute effective interactions in the appropriate channels, we obtain good agreement between theory and experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

QCD sum rule analysis for light vector and axial-vector mesons in vacuum and nuclear matter

Extending previous work we study the constraints of QCD sum rules on mass and width of light vector and axial-vector mesons in vacuum and in a medium with finite nuclear density. For the latter case especially the effect of nuclear pions leading to vector-axial-vector mixing is included in the analysis.Comment: RevTeX, 32 pages, 10 eps figure

Neutrino Opacities in Neutron Stars with Kaon Condensates

The neutrino mean free paths in hot neutron-star matter are obtained in the presence of kaon condensates. The kaon-induced neutrino absorption process, which is allowed only in the presence of kaon condensates, is considered for both nondegenerate and degenerate neutrinos. The neutrino mean free path due to this process is compared with that for the neutrino-nucleon scattering. While the mean free path for the kaon-induced neutrino absorption process is shown to be shorter than the ordinary two-nucleon absorption process by several orders of magnitude when temperature is not very high, the neutrino-nucleon scattering process has still a dominant contribution to the neutrino opacity. Thus, the kaon-induced neutrino absorption process has a minor effect on the thermal and dynamical evolution of protoneutron stars.Comment: 35 pages, 4 figure

In-medium pion weak decay constants

In nuclear matter, the pion weak decay constant is separated into the two components $f_t, f_s$ corresponding to the time and space components of the axial-vector current. Using QCD sum rules, we compute the two decay constants from the pseudoscalar-axial vector correlation function in the matter $i \int d^4x~ e^{ip\cdot x} < \rho| T[{\bar d}(x) i \gamma_5 u (x)~ {\bar u}(0) \gamma_\mu \gamma_5 d (0)] | \rho>$. It is found that the sum rule for $f_t$ satisfies the in-medium Gell-Mann--Oakes--Renner (GOR) relation precisely while the $f_s$ sum rule does not. The $f_s$ sum rule contains the non-negligible contribution from the dimension 5 condensate $_N + {1\over 8} _N$ in addition to the in-medium quark condensate. Using standard set of QCD parameters and ignoring the in-medium change of the pion mass, we obtain $f_t =105$ MeV at the nuclear saturation density. The prediction for $f_s$ depends on values of the dimension 5 condensate and on the Borel mass. However, the OPE constrains that $f_s/f_t \ge 1$, which does not agree with the prediction from the in-medium chiral perturbation theory. Depending on the value of the dimension 5 condensate, $f_s$ at the saturation density is found to be in the range $112 \sim 134$ MeV at the Borel mass $M^2 \sim 1$ GeV$^2$.Comment: 19 pages including two postscript figures, substantially revise

Nuclear Saturation with in-Medium Meson Exchange Interactions

We show that the assumption of dropping meson masses together with conventional many-body effects, implemented in the relativistic Dirac-Brueckner formalism, explains nuclear saturation. We use a microscopic model for correlated $2\pi$ exchange and include the standard many-body effects on the in-medium pion propagation, which initially increase the attractive nucleon-nucleon ($NN$) potential with density. For the vector meson exchanges in both the $\pi\pi$ and $NN$ sector, we assume Brown-Rho scaling which---in concert with `chiral' $\pi\pi$ contact interactions---reduces the attraction at higher densities.Comment: 5 pages REVTeX, 2 eps-figures included, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Contribution of the massive photon decay channel to neutrino cooling of neutron stars

We consider massive photon decay reactions via intermediate states of electron-electron-holes and proton-proton-holes into neutrino-antineutrino pairs in the course of neutron star cooling. These reactions may become operative in hot neutron stars in the region of proton pairing where the photon due to the Higgs-Meissner effect acquires an effective mass $m_{\gamma}$ that is small compared to the corresponding plasma frequency. The contribution of these reactions to neutrino emissivity is calculated; it varies with the temperature and the photon mass as $T^{3/2}m_{\gamma}^{7/2} e^{-m_{\gamma}/T}$ for $T < m_{\gamma}$. Estimates show that these processes appear as extra efficient cooling channels of neutron stars at temperatures $T \simeq (10^9-10^{10})$ K.Comment: accepted to publication in Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. (JETP

Reduction of Weak Interaction Rates in Neutron Stars by Nucleon Spin Fluctuations: Degenerate Case

Nucleon spin fluctuations in a dense medium reduce the ``naive'' values of weak interaction rates (neutrino opacities, neutrino emissivities). We extend previous studies of this effect to the degenerate case which is appropriate for neutron stars a few ten seconds after formation. If neutron-neutron interactions by a one-pion exchange potential are the dominant cause of neutron spin fluctuations, a perturbative calculation of weak interaction rates is justified for T\alt 3m/(4\pi\alpha_\pi^2)\approx 1 MeV, where $m$ is the neutron mass and $\alpha_\pi\approx15$ the pion fine-structure constant. At higher temperatures, the application of Landau's theory of Fermi liquids is no longer justified, i.e. the neutrons cannot be viewed as simple quasiparticles in any obvious sense.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, no figures, to be published in PR