Susceptibilities and the Phase Structure of a Chiral Model with Polyakov Loops

In an extension of the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model where the quarks interact with the temporal gluon field, represented by the Polyakov loop, we explore the relation between the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions. The effect of Polyakov loop dynamics on thermodynamic quantities, on the phase structure at finite temperature and baryon density and on various susceptibilities is presented. Particular emphasis is put on the behavior and properties of the fluctuations of the (approximate) order parameters and their dependence on temperature and net--quark number density. We also discuss how the phase structure of the model is influenced by the coupling of the quarks to the Polyakov loop.Comment: 18 pages, 22 figures; text rearranged and references added. results and conclusions unchanged; final version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Effective chiral model with Polyakov loops and its application to hot/dense medium

We study the thermodynamics of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with Polyakov loops, where spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and confinement are taken into account. We focus on the phase structure of the model and explore the susceptibilities associated with corresponding order parameters under the mean-field approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of the Yukawa International Seminars (YKIS) 2006, Nov.27-Dec.1, 2006, Kyoto, Japa

Susceptibilities and the Phase Structure of an Effective Chiral Model with Polyakov Loops

In the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with Polyakov loops, we explore the relation between the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions within the mean-field approximation. We focus on the phase structure of the model and study the susceptibilities associated with corresponding order parameters.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (QM2006), November 14-20 2006, Shanghai, Chin

eta-meson photoproduction off protons and deuterons

We present a unitary and gauge-invariant model with coupled channels, which provides a consistent description of pion photoproduction off nucleons in the E$_{0+}$ channel and eta-meson photoproduction off protons and deuterons. An effective field theory with hadrons and photons is constructed, which includes non-resonant Born terms as well as the S$_{11}$(1535) and S$_{11}$(1650) baryon resonances. Due to the coupling between the channels, the production of eta-mesons is strongly affected by the S$_{11}$(1650) although its direct coupling to the $\eta$N channel is negligible. The rho- and omega-meson exchange terms are important for achieving a consistent description of both pion- and photon-induced reactions.Comment: 11 pages Latex, 4 Postscript Figure

QCD phase diagram and charge fluctuations

We discuss the phase structure and fluctuations of conserved charges in two flavor QCD. The importance of the density fluctuations to probe the existence of the critical end point is summarized. The role of these fluctuations to identify the first order phase transition in the presence of spinodal phase separation is also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, plenary talk given at the 19th International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions: Quark Matter 2006 (QM 2006), Shanghai, China, 14-20 Nov 200

Density fluctuations and chiral phase transition

Based on an effective QCD Lagrangian we discuss the properties of charge density fluctuations in the vicinity of chiral phase transition. We explore thermodynamics in the presence of spinodal phase separation. We show that appearance of spinodal decomposition in a non-equilibrium first order phase transition results in divergence of the charge density fluctuations related with the electric charge and baryon number conservation. Consequently, divergent fluctuations at the chiral phase transition are not only attributed to the critical end point but are also there along the first order phase transition if the spinodal phase separation take place. Based on the mean field dynamics, the critical exponents for these singular behavior of charge susceptibilities are also discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, contribution to SQM 2007 in Levoca, Slovakia, J. Phys. G in pres

Topo-Geometric Filtration Scheme for Geometric Active Contours and Level Sets: Application to Cerebrovascular Segmentation

One of the main problems of the existing methods for the segmentation of cerebral vasculature is the appearance in the segmentation result of wrong topological artefacts such as the kissing vessels. In this paper, a new approach for the detection and correction of such errors is presented. The proposed technique combines robust topological information given by Persistent Homology with complementary geometrical information of the vascular tree. The method was evaluated on 20 images depicting cerebral arteries. Detection and correction success rates were 81.80% and 68.77%, respectively

Density fluctuations in the presence of spinodal instabilities

Density fluctuations resulting from spinodal decomposition in a non-equilibrium first-order chiral phase transition are explored. We show that such instabilities generate divergent fluctuations of conserved charges along the isothermal spinodal lines appearing in the coexistence region. Thus, divergent density fluctuations could be a signal not only for the critical end point but also for the first order phase transition expected in strongly interacting matter. We also show that the mean-field critical exponent at the spinodal lines and at the critical end point are identical. Our analysis is performed in the mean-field approximation to the NJL model formulated at finite temperature and density. However, our main conclusions are expected to be generic and model independent

Charge Fluctuations along the QCD phase boundary

We discuss the properties of the net--quark and isovector fluctuations along the chiral phase transition line in the plane spanned by temperature and baryon chemical potential. Our results are obtained in terms of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model within the mean-field approximation. The model is formulated at the finite temperature and for non-vanishing net--quark and the isospin chemical potentials. The fermion interactions are controlled by the strength of the scalar and vector couplings in the iso-scalar and iso-vector channels of constituent quarks. We explore properties and differences in the behavior of the net--quark number and isovector susceptibilities for different values of thermal parameters near the phase transition. We argue that any non-monotonic behavior of the net--quark number susceptibility along the phase transition boundary is an excellent probe of the existence and the position of the second order endpoint in the QCD phase diagram