Strongly Coupled Plasmas in High-Energy Physics

One of the main activities in high-energy and nuclear physics is the search for the so-called quark-gluon plasma, a new state of matter which should have existed a few microseconds after the Big Bang. A quark-gluon plasma consists of free color charges, i.e. quarks and gluons, interacting by the strong (instead of electromagnetic) force. Theoretical considerations predict that the critical temperature for the phase transition from nuclear matter to a quark-gluon plasma is about 150 - 200 MeV. In the laboratory such a temperature can be reached in a so-called relativistic heavy-ion collision in accelerator experiments. Using the color charge instead of the electric charge, the Coulomb coupling parameter of such a system is of the order 10 - 30. Hence the quark-gluon plasma is a strongly coupled, relativistic plasma, in which also quantum effects are important. In the present work the experimental and theoretical status of the quark-gluon plasma physics will be reviewed, emphasizing the similarities and differences with usual plasma physics. Furthermore, the mixed phase consisting of free quarks and gluons together with hadrons (e.g. pions) will be discussed, which can be regarded as a complex plasma due to the finite extent of the hadrons.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to be published in the Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas (St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Van Hove Singularities in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

General arguments as well as different approximations for the in-medium quark propagator in a quark-gluon plasma lead to quark dispersion relations that exhibit a minimum in one branch (plasmino). This minimum causes Van Hove singularities in the dilepton production rate and mesonic correlators, which might have observable consequences.Comment: 9 pages, LaTex, 5 PostScript figures and style file included, to be published in the proceedings of the conference "New Frontiers in Soft Physics and Correlations on the Threshold of the Third Millenium" (12-17 June 2000, Torino, Italy

Leontovich Relations in Thermal Field Theory

The application of generalized Kramers-Kronig relations, the so-called Leontovich relations, to thermal field theory is discussed. Medium effects contained in the full, thermal propagators can easily be taken into account by this method. As examples the collisional energy loss of a charged particle in a relativistic plasma and the radiation of energetic photons from a quark-gluon plasma are considered. Within the leading logarithmic approximation the results based on the hard thermal loop resummation technique are reproduced easily. However, the method presented here is more general and provides exact expressions, which allow in principle non-perturbative calculations.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Absence of Thermophoretic Flow in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions as an Indicator for the Absence of a Mixed Phase

If a quark-gluon plasma is formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, there may or may not be a mixed phase of quarks, gluons and hadronic clusters when the critical temperature is reached in the expansion of the fireball. If there is a temperature gradient in the fireball, the hadronic clusters, embedded in the heat bath of quarks and gluons, are subjected to a thermophoretic force. It is shown that even for small temperature gradients and short lifetimes of the mixed phase, thermophoresis would lead to a flow essentially stronger than the observed one. The absence of this strong flow provides support for a rapid or sudden hadronization mechanism without a mixed phase.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, revised version to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Direct Photons from Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Direct photons have been proposed as a promising signature for the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Recently WA98 presented the first data on direct photons in Pb+Pb-collisions at SPS. At the same time RHIC started with its experimental program. The discovery of the QGP in these experiments relies on a comparison of data with theoretical predictions for QGP signals. In the case of direct photons new results for the production rates of thermal photons from the QGP and a hot hadron gas as well as for prompt photons from initial hard parton scatterings have been proposed recently. Based on these rates a variety of different hydrodynamic models, describing the space-time evolution of the fireball, have been adopted for calculating the direct photon spectra. The results have been compared to the WA98 data and predictions for RHIC and LHC have been made. So far the conclusions of the various models are controversial. The aim of the present review is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date survey and status report on the experimental and theoretical aspects of direct photons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 91 pages, 44 figures, revised version to be published in Phys. Re

Renormalization of Entanglement Entropy and the Gravitational Effective Action

The entanglement entropy associated with a spatial boundary in quantum field theory is UV divergent, with the leading term proportional to the area of the boundary. For a class of quantum states defined by a path integral, the Callan-Wilczek formula gives a geometrical definition of the entanglement entropy. We show that, for this class of quantum states, the entanglement entropy is rendered UV-finite by precisely the counterterms required to cancel the UV divergences in the gravitational effective action. In particular, the leading contribution to the entanglement entropy is given by the renormalized Bekenstein-Hawking formula, in accordance with a proposal of Susskind and Uglum. We show that the subleading UV-divergent terms in the entanglement entropy depend nontrivially on the quantum state. We compute new subleading terms in the entanglement entropy and find agreement with the Wald entropy formula for black hole spacetimes with bifurcate Killing horizons. We speculate that the entanglement entropy of an arbitrary spatial boundary may be a well-defined observable in quantum gravity.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor corrections and clarification