137 research outputs found
An effective chiral Hadron-Quark Equation of State
We construct an effective model for the QCD equation of state, taking into
account chiral symmetry restoration as well as the deconfinement phase
transition. The correct asymptotic degrees of freedom at the high and low
temperature limits are included (quarks hadrons). The model
shows a rapid crossover for both order parameters, as is expected from lattice
calculations. We then compare the thermodynamic properties of the model at
which turn out to be in qualitative agreement with lattice data,
while apparent quantitative differences can be attributed to hadronic
contributions and excluded volume corrections. Furthermore we discuss the
effects of a repulsive vector type quark interaction at finite baryon number
densities on the resulting phase diagram of the model. Our current model is
able to reproduce a first-order liquid gas phase transition as expected, but
does not show any signs of a first order deconfinement or chiral phase
transition. Both transitions rather appear as a very wide crossover in which
heavily medium modified hadron coexist with free quarks.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures Version accepted by J. Phys.
The Free Energy of High Temperature QED to Order From Effective Field Theory
Massless quantum electrodynamics is studied at high temperature and zero
chemical potential. We compute the Debye screening mass to order and
the free energy to order } by an effective field theory approach,
recently developed by Braaten and Nieto. Our results are in agreement with
calculations done in resummed perturbation theory. This method makes it
possible to separate contributions to the free energy from different momentum
scales (order and ) and provides an economical alternative to
computations in the full theory which involves the dressing of internal
propagators.Comment: 10 pages Latex, 6 figure
Active restoration initiates high quality forest succession in a deforested landscape in Amazonia.
Amazonia is well known for its high natural regeneration capacity; for this reason, passive restoration is normally recommended for the recovery of its degraded forests. However, highly deforested landscapes in southern Amazonia require active restoration. Since restoration methods can shape the quality and speed of early forest recovery, this study aimed to verify how active restoration pushes sites stably covered with exotic grasses towards forest recovery. We evaluated early forest succession at active restoration sites, i.e., soil plowing, direct seeding of pioneer species, and seedling stock planting at low density. We analyzed forest structure, diversity, and species composition in two age classes, 0.5–3.5 and 4.5–7.5 years old. As reference, we evaluated sites able to naturally regenerate in the same region. We sampled 36 active restoration and 31 natural regeneration sites along the Madeira River, southern Amazonia. Active restoration triggered succession to similar or higher levels of forest structure than sites where natural regeneration was taking place. The most dominant species did not overlap between active restoration and natural regeneration sites. The overall composition of species was different between the two restoration methods. Dominant species and size class distribution show that active restoration is performing successfully. Soil preparation combined with a high availability of seeds of pioneer trees resulted in a high stem density and basal area of facilitative pioneer trees. Planted seedlings added species diversity and increased density of large trees. Interventions to increase the odds of natural regeneration can be effective for non-regenerating sites in resilient landscapes
Interactions between Cosmic Strings: An Analytical Study
We derive analytic expressions for the interaction energy between two general
cosmic strings as the function of their relative orientation and the
ratio of the coupling constants in the model. The results are relevant to the
statistic description of strings away from critical coupling and shed some
light on the mechanisms involved in string formation and the evolution of
string networks.Comment: 31 pages,REVTEX, Imperial/TP/93-94/3
SQM 2006: Theory Summary and Perspectives
In this write-up of my SQM 2006 Theory Summary talk I focus on a selection of
key contributions which I consider to have a large impact on the current status
of the field of strangeness physics or which may have the potential to
significantly advance strangeness -- or in general flavor physics -- in the
near future.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, SQM 2006 proceedings. Revised version containing
two modifications to the transport theory sectio
Baryon Washout, Electroweak Phase Transition, and Perturbation Theory
We analyze the conventional perturbative treatment of sphaleron-induced
baryon number washout relevant for electroweak baryogenesis and show that it is
not gauge-independent due to the failure of consistently implementing the
Nielsen identities order-by-order in perturbation theory. We provide a
gauge-independent criterion for baryon number preservation in place of the
conventional (gauge-dependent) criterion needed for successful electroweak
baryogenesis. We also review the arguments leading to the preservation
criterion and analyze several sources of theoretical uncertainties in obtaining
a numerical bound. In various beyond the standard model scenarios, a realistic
perturbative treatment will likely require knowledge of the complete two-loop
finite temperature effective potential and the one-loop sphaleron rate.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures; v2 minor typos correcte
Dynamical renormalization group approach to transport in ultrarelativistic plasmas: the electrical conductivity in high temperature QED
The DC electrical conductivity of an ultrarelativistic QED plasma is studied
in real time by implementing the dynamical renormalization group. The
conductivity is obtained from the realtime dependence of a dissipative kernel
related to the retarded photon polarization. Pinch singularities in the
imaginary part of the polarization are manifest as growing secular terms that
in the perturbative expansion of this kernel. The leading secular terms are
studied explicitly and it is shown that they are insensitive to the anomalous
damping of hard fermions as a result of a cancellation between self-energy and
vertex corrections. The resummation of the secular terms via the dynamical
renormalization group leads directly to a renormalization group equation in
real time, which is the Boltzmann equation for the (gauge invariant) fermion
distribution function. A direct correspondence between the perturbative
expansion and the linearized Boltzmann equation is established, allowing a
direct identification of the self energy and vertex contributions to the
collision term.We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation in momentum space that
describes the dynamics of the departure from equilibrium to leading logarithmic
order in the coupling.This determines that the transport time scale is given by
t_{tr}=(24 pi)/[e^4 T \ln(1/e)}]. The solution of the Fokker-Planck equation
approaches asymptotically the steady- state solution as sim e^{-t/(4.038
t_{tr})}.The steady-state solution leads to the conductivity sigma = 15.698
T/[e^2 ln(1/e)] to leading logarithmic order. We discuss the contributions
beyond leading logarithms as well as beyond the Boltzmann equation. The
dynamical renormalization group provides a link between linear response in
quantum field theory and kinetic theory.Comment: LaTex, 48 pages, 14 .ps figures, final version to appear in Phys.
Rev.
Dynamical Renormalization Group Approach to Quantum Kinetics in Scalar and Gauge Theories
We derive quantum kinetic equations from a quantum field theory implementing
a diagrammatic perturbative expansion improved by a resummation via the
dynamical renormalization group. The method begins by obtaining the equation of
motion of the distribution function in perturbation theory. The solution of
this equation of motion reveals secular terms that grow in time, the dynamical
renormalization group resums these secular terms in real time and leads
directly to the quantum kinetic equation. We used this method to study the
relaxation in a cool gas of pions and sigma mesons in the O(4) chiral linear
sigma model. We obtain in relaxation time approximation the pion and sigma
meson relaxation rates. We also find that in large momentum limit emission and
absorption of massless pions result in threshold infrared divergence in sigma
meson relaxation rate and lead to a crossover behavior in relaxation. We then
study the relaxation of charged quasiparticles in scalar electrodynamics
(SQED). While longitudinal, Debye screened photons lead to purely exponential
relaxation, transverse photons, only dynamically screened by Landau damping
lead to anomalous relaxation, thus leading to a crossover between two different
relaxational regimes. We emphasize that infrared divergent damping rates are
indicative of non-exponential relaxation and the dynamical renormalization
group reveals the correct relaxation directly in real time. Finally we also
show that this method provides a natural framework to interpret and resolve the
issue of pinch singularities out of equilibrium and establish a direct
correspondence between pinch singularities and secular terms. We argue that
this method is particularly well suited to study quantum kinetics and transport
in gauge theories.Comment: RevTeX, 40 pages, 4 eps figures, published versio
Real and imaginary-time correlators in a thermal medium
We investigate the behavior of a pair of heavy fermions, denoted by and
, in a hot/dense medium. Although we have in mind the situation where
and denote heavy quarks, our treatment will be limited to
simplified models, which bear only some general similarities with QCD. We study
in particular the limiting case where the mass of the heavy fermions is
infinite. Then a number of results can be derived exactly: a Schr\"odinger
equation can be established for the correlator of the heavy quarks; the
interaction effects exponentiate, leading to a simple instantaneous effective
potential for this Schr\"odinger equation. We consider simple models for the
medium in which the pair propagates. In the case where the medium is
a plasma of photons and light charged fermions, an imaginary part develops in
this effective potential. We discuss the physical interpretation of this
imaginary part in terms of the collisions between the heavy particles and the
light fermions of the medium; the same collisions also determine the damping
rate of the heavy fermions. Finally we study the connection between the
real-time propagator of the heavy fermion pair and its Euclidean counterpart,
and show that the real part of the potential entering the Schr\"odinger
equation for the real-time propagator is the free energy calculated in the
imaginary-time formalism.Comment: 32 pages, 8 figure
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