Physical Information in the Thermal Continuum Dilepton Spectra

We consider the intermediate mass continuum of dileptons (between $\phi$ and $J/\psi$) in ultrarelativistic heavy--ion collisions. The thermal signal depends essentially on thermodynamic state parameters of the hottest parton stage as $(\tau_i\lambda^q_iT_i^3)^2$ convoluted with an involved detector acceptance function. A refined analysis of the transverse pair momentum spectrum at fixed dilepton transverse mass can reveal the maximum temperature of parton matter.Comment: 3 LaTeX pages including eps figures, contribution to the Erice School on Nuclear Physics 1998 (to be published in "Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics"

QCD sum rules for D mesons in dense and hot nuclear matter

Open charm mesons (pseudo-scalar and scalar as well as axial-vector and vector) propagating or resting in nuclear matter display an enhanced sensitivity to the chiral condensate. This offers new prospects to seek for signals of chiral restoration, in particular in p-A and p-bar-A reactions as envisaged in first-round experiments by the CBM and PANDA collaborations at FAIR. Weinberg type sum rules for charming chiral partners are presented, and the distinct in-medium modifications of open-charm mesons are discussed. We also address the gluon condensates near Tc and their impact on QCD sum rules.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, conference proceeding

Relativistic Expansion of Electron-Positron-Photon Plasma Droplets and Photon Emission

The expansion dynamics of hot electron-positron-photon plasma droplets is dealt with within relativistic hydrodynamics. Such droplets, envisaged to be created in future experiments by irradiating thin foils with counter-propagating ultra-intense laser beams, are sources of flashes of gamma radiation. Warm electron-positron plasma droplets may be identified and characterized by a broadened 511 keV line

Is there a unique thermal source of dileptons in Pb(158 AGeV) + Au, Pb reactions?

An analysis of the dilepton measurements in the reactions Pb(158 A$\cdot$GeV) + Au, Pb points to a unique thermal source contributing to the invariant mass and transverse momentum spectra. Effects of the flow pattern are discussed.Comment: 7 LaTeX pages including eps figure

Production of \phi Mesons in Near-Threshold \pi N and N N Reactions

We analyze the production of $\phi$ mesons in $\pi N$ and NN reactions in the near-threshold region, using throughout the conventional ``non-strange'' dynamics based on such processes which are allowed by the non-ideal $\omega-\phi$ mixing. We show that the occurrence of the direct $\phi NN$ interaction may show up in different unpolarized and polarization observables in $\pi N\to N\phi$ reactions. We find a strong non-trivial difference between observables in the reactions $pp\to pp\phi$ and $pn\to pn\phi$ caused by the different role of the spin singlet and triplet states in the entrance channel. A series of predictions for the experimental study of this effect is presented.Comment: 35 pages including 18 figure