Effects of jet quenching on the hydrodynamical evolution of quark-gluon plasma

We study the effects of jet quenching on the hydrodynamical evolution of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) fluid created in a heavy-ion collision. In jet quenching, a hard QCD parton, before fragmenting into a jet of hadrons, deposits a fraction of its energy in the medium, leading to suppressed production of high-pT hadrons. Assuming that the deposited energy quickly thermalizes, we simulate the subsequent hydrodynamic evolution of the QGP fluid. For partons moving at supersonic speed, v_p > c_s, and sufficiently large energy loss, a shock wave forms leading to conical flow [1]. The PHENIX Collaboration recently suggested that observed structures in the azimuthal angle distribution [2] might be caused by conical flow. We show here that conical flow produces different angular structures than predicted in [1] and that, for phenomenologically acceptable values of parton energy loss, conical flow effects are too weak to explain the structures seen by PHENIX [2].Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Last figure changed, now showing angular distribution of pions instead of photons. Added comments on "lost jets" and pT-dependence of angular correlation

Equation of State and Collective Dynamics

This talk summarizes the present status of a program to quantitatively relate data from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) on collective expansion flow to the Equation of State (EOS) of hot and dense strongly interacting matter, including the quark-gluon plasma and the quark-hadron phase transition. The limits reached with the present state of the art and the next steps required to make further progress will both be discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 two-part figures. Invited talk given at the 5th International Conference on the Physics and Astrophysics of Quark-Gluon Plasma (ICPAQGP 2005), Kolkata (India), Feb 8-12, 2005. Proceedings to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Jan-E Alam et al., eds.

Optimal entanglement criterion for mixed quantum states

We develop a strong and computationally simple entanglement criterion. The criterion is based on an elementary positive map Phi which operates on state spaces with even dimension N >= 4. It is shown that Phi detects many entangled states with positive partial transposition (PPT) and that it leads to a class of optimal entanglement witnesses. This implies that there are no other witnesses which can detect more entangled PPT states. The map Phi yields a systematic method for the explicit construction of high-dimensional manifolds of bound entangled states.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, replaced by published version (minor changes), Journal-reference adde

Formation Time of QGP from Thermal Photon Elliptic Flow

We show that the transverse momentum dependent elliptic flow $v_2(p_T)$ of thermal photons is quite sensitive to the initial formation time ($\tau_0$) of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) for semi-central collision of gold nuclei at RHIC \cite{tau}. A smaller value of the formation time or a larger initial temperature leads to a significant increase in the thermal photon radiation from QGP phase, which has a smaller $v_2$. The elliptic flow of thermal photon is dominated by the contribution from the quark matter at intermediate and high $p_T$ range and as a result sum $v_2$ decreases with smaller $\tau_0$ for $p_T \ge 1.5$ GeV. On the other hand we find that the elliptic flow parameter for hadrons depends only marginally on the value of $\tau_0$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennessee, v2: minor correction

Elliptic flow of thermal dileptons in relativistic nuclear collisions

We calculate the transverse momentum and invariant mass dependence of elliptic flow of thermal dileptons for Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The system is described using hydrodynamics, with the assumption of formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma at some early time, followed by cooling through expansion, hadronization and decoupling. Dileptons are emitted throughout the expansion history: by annihilation of quarks and anti-quarks inthe early quark-gluon plasma stage and through a set of hadronic reactions during the late hadronic stage. The resulting differential elliptic flow exhibits a rich structure, with different dilepton mass windows providing access to different stages of the expansion history. Elliptic flow measurements for dileptons,combined with those of hadrons and direct photons, are a powerful tool for mapping the time-evolution of heavy-ion collisions.Comment: Latex 8 pages including a total of 13 postscript figures. Added 2 figures, additional references, and expanded discussions. Figures modified for better viewing. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Elliptic flow of thermal photons in relativistic nuclear collisions

We predict the transverse momentum (pT) dependence of elliptic flow of thermal photons for Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We model the system hydrodynamically, assuming formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma at some early time, followed by cooling through expansion, hadronization and decoupling. Photons are emitted throughout the expansion history. Contrary to hadron elliptic flow, which hydrodynamics predicts to increase monotonically with pT, the elliptic flow of thermal photons is predicted to first rise and then fall again as pT increases. Photon elliptic flow at high pT is shown to reflect the quark momentum anisotropy at early times when it is small, whereas at low pT it is controlled by the much larger pion momentum anisotropy during the late hadronic emission stage. An interesting structure is predicted at intermediate pT ~ 0.4 GeV/c where photon elliptic flow reflects the momenta and the (compared to pions) reduced v2 of heavy vector mesons in the late hadronic phase.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Amended Fig. 3 and corresponding discussion, with complete explanation of the low-pT structure of photon elliptic flow around pT=400 MeV/

Electron Refrigeration in the Tunneling Approach

The qualities of electron refrigeration by means of tunnel junctions between superconducting and normal--metal electrodes are studied theoretically. A suitable approximation of the basic expression for the heat current across those tunnel junctions allows the investigation of several features of the device such as its optimal bias voltage, its maximal heat current, its optimal working point, and the maximally gained temperature reduction. Fortunately, the obtained results can be compared with those of a recent experiment.Comment: 4 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses eps