Shear viscosity over entropy density ratio with extended quasi-particles

We consider an effective field theory description of beyond-quasi-particle excitations aiming to associate the transport properties of the system with the spectral density of states. Tuning various properties of the many-particle correlations, we investigate how the robust microscopic features are translated into the macroscopic observables like shear viscosity and entropy density. The liquid-gas crossover is analysed using several examples. A thermal constraint on the fluidity measure, the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, uses revtex4-1; published versio

On Charmonia Survival Above Deconfinement

We study charmonium correlators and spectral functions at zero and finite temperature using anisotropic lattices at several different lattice spacings. We find evidence for survival of 1S charmonia states at leas till $1.5T_c$ and dissolution of 1P states at $1.16T_c$.Comment: contribution to the 29th Johns Hopkins Workshop in Theoretical Physics, Budapest, Hungary, 1-3 August 200

Generalized Boltzmann equations for on-shell particle production in a hot plasma

A novel refinement of the conventional treatment of Kadanoff--Baym equations is suggested. Besides the Boltzmann equation another differential equation is used for calculating the evolution of the non-equilibrium two-point function. Although it was usually interpreted as a constraint on the solution of the Boltzmann equation, we argue that its dynamics is relevant to the determination and resummation of the particle production cut contributions. The differential equation for this new contribution is illustrated in the example of the cubic scalar model. The analogue of the relaxation time approximation is suggested. It results in the shift of the threshold location and in smearing out of the non-analytic threshold behaviour of the spectral function. Possible consequences for the dilepton production are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 2 ps figure