Sequential charmonium dissociation

Finite temperature lattice QCD indicates that the charmonium ground state J/psi can survive in a quark-gluon plasma up to 1.5 T_c or more, while the excited states chi_c and psi-prime are dissociated just above T_c. We assume that the chi_c suffers the same form of suppression as that observed for the psi-prime in SPS experiments, and that the directly produced J/psi is unaffected at presently available energy densities. This provides a parameter-free description of J/psi and psi-prime suppression which agrees quite well with that observed in SPS and RHIC data.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure

Phase Structure of Color Superconductivity

We investigate color superconductivity and chiral symmetry restoration at finite temperature and baryon density in the frame of standard two flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. We derive the diquark mass in RPA, discuss its constraint on the coupling constant in the diquark channel, and find a strong competition between the two phase transitions when the coupling constant is large enough.Comment: Talk presented at Conference on Non-Perturbative Quantum Field Theory: Lattice and Beyond, Guangzhou, China, Dec.16--18, 200

Infrared features of unquenched finite temperature lattice Landau gauge QCD

The color diagonal and color antisymmetric ghost propagators slightly above $T_c$ of $N_f=2$ MILC $24^3\times 12$ lattices are measured and compared with zero temperature unquenched $N_f=2+1$ MILC$_c$ $20^3\times 64$ and MILC$_f$ $28^3\times 96$ lattices and zero temperature quenched $56^4$ $\beta=6.4$ and 6.45 lattices. The expectation value of the color antisymmetric ghost propagator $\phi^c(q)$ is zero but its Binder cumulant, which is consistent with that of $N_c^2-1$ dimensional Gaussian distribution below $T_c$, decreases above $T_c$. Although the color diagonal ghost propagator is temperature independent, the $l^1$ norm of the color antisymmetric ghost propagator is temperature dependent. The expectation value of the ghost condensate observed at zero temperature unquenched configuration is consistent with 0 in $T>T_c$. We also measure transverse, magnetic and electric gluon propagator and extract gluon screening masses. The running coupling measured from the product of the gluon dressing function and the ghost dressing function are almost temperature independent but the effect of $A^2$ condensate observed at zero temperature is consistent with 0 in $T>T_c$. The transverse gluon dressing function at low temperature has a peak in the infrared but it becomes flatter at high temperature. Its absolute value in the high momentum is larger for high temperature and similar to the magnetic gluon dressing function. The electric gluon propagator at high momentum is temperature independent. These data imply that the magnetic gluon propagator and the color antisymmetric ghost propagator are affected by the presence of dynamical quarks and there are strong non-perturbative effects through the temperature dependent color anti-symmetric ghost propagator.Comment: 11 pages 16 figures, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

The QCD phase diagram: A comparison of lattice and hadron resonance gas model calculations

We compare the lattice results on QCD phase diagram for two and three flavors with the hadron resonance gas model (HRGM) calculations. Lines of constant energy density $\epsilon$ have been determined at different baryo-chemical potentials $\mu_B$. For the strangeness chemical potentials $\mu_S$, we use two models. In one model, we explicitly set $\mu_S=0$ for all temperatures and baryo-chemical potentials. This assignment is used in lattice calculations. In the other model, $\mu_S$ is calculated in dependence on $T$ and $\mu_B$ according to the condition of vanishing strangeness. We also derive an analytical expression for the dependence of $T_c$ on $\mu_B/T$ by applying Taylor expansion of $\epsilon$. In both cases, we compare HRGM results on $T_c-\mu_B$ diagram with the lattice calculations. The agreement is excellent, especially when the trigonometric function of $\epsilon$ is truncated up to the same order as done in lattice simulations. For studying the efficiency of the truncated Taylor expansion, we calculate the radius of convergence. For zero- and second-order radii, the agreement with lattice is convincing. Furthermore, we make predictions for QCD phase diagram for non-truncated expressions and physical masses. These predictions are to be confirmed by heavy-ion experiments and future lattice calculations with very small lattice spacing and physical quark masses.Comment: 25 pages, 8 eps figure

QCD strings and the thermodynamics of the metastable phase of QCD at large NcN_c

The thermodyanmics of a metastable hadronic phase of QCD at large $N_C$ are related to properties of an effective QCD string. In particular, it is shown that in the large $N_c$ limit and near the maximum hadronic temperature, $T_H$, the energy density and pressure of the metastable phase scale as ${\cal E} \sim (T_H-T)^{-(D_\perp-6)/2}$ (for $D_\perp <6$) and $P \sim (T_H-T)^{-(D_\perp-4)/2}$ (for $D_\perp <4$) where $D_\perp$ is the effective number of transverse dimensions of the string theory. It is shown, however, that for the thermodynamic quantities of interest the limits $T \to T_H$ and $N_c \to \infty$ do not commute. The prospect of extracting $D_\perp$ via lattice simulations of the metastable hadronic phase at moderately large $N_c$ is discussed.Comment: After this paper was published, the author became aware of an important early paper by Charles Thorn on the subject of the QCD phase transition at large N_c and its relation to the Hagedorn spectrum. Given the pioneering nature of Thorn's paper, and the fact that it is not as widely known as it should be, it is important to cite it in the present work. This updated version cites Thorn's wor

Near-field coupling of gold plasmonic antennas for sub-100 nm magneto-thermal microscopy

The development of spintronic technology with increasingly dense, high-speed, and complex devices will be accelerated by accessible microscopy techniques capable of probing magnetic phenomena on picosecond time scales and at deeply sub-micron length scales. A recently developed time-resolved magneto-thermal microscope provides a path towards this goal if it is augmented with a picosecond, nanoscale heat source. We theoretically study adiabatic nanofocusing and near-field heat induction using conical gold plasmonic antennas to generate sub-100 nm thermal gradients for time-resolved magneto-thermal imaging. Finite element calculations of antenna-sample interactions reveal focused electromagnetic loss profiles that are either peaked directly under the antenna or are annular, depending on the sample's conductivity, the antenna's apex radius, and the tip-sample separation. We find that the thermal gradient is confined to 40 nm to 60 nm full width at half maximum for realistic ranges of sample conductivity and apex radius. To mitigate this variation, which is undesirable for microscopy, we investigate the use of a platinum capping layer on top of the sample as a thermal transduction layer to produce heat uniformly across different sample materials. After determining the optimal capping layer thickness, we simulate the evolution of the thermal gradient in the underlying sample layer, and find that the temporal width is below 10 ps. These results lay a theoretical foundation for nanoscale, time-resolved magneto-thermal imaging.Comment: 24 pages including Supporting Information, 6 figures in the main text, 4 supporting figure

A Family of Equations of State Based on Lattice QCD: Impact on Flow in Ultrarelativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

We construct a family of equations of state within a quasiparticle model by relating pressure, energy density, baryon density and susceptibilities adjusted to first-principles lattice QCD calculations. The relation between pressure and energy density from lattice QCD is surprisingly insensitive to details of the simulations. Effects from different lattice actions, quark masses and lattice spacings used in the simulations show up mostly in the quark-hadron phase transition region which we bridge over by a set of interpolations to a hadron resonance gas equation of state. Within our optimized quasiparticle model we then examine the equation of state along isentropic expansion trajectories at small net baryon densities, as relevant for experiments and hydrodynamic simulations at RHIC and LHC energies. We illustrate its impact on azimuthal flow anisotropies and transverse momentum spectra of various hadron species

QCD matter within a quasi-particle model and the critical end point

We compare our quasi-particle model with recent lattice QCD results for the equation of state at finite temperature and baryo-chemical potential. The inclusion of the QCD critical end point into models is discussed. We propose a family of equations of state to be employed in hydrodynamical calculations of particle spectra at RHIC energies and compare with the differential azimuthal anisotropy of strange and charm hadrons.Comment: talk at Quark Matter 2005, August 4 - 9, 2005, Budapest, Hungar

Glueball enhancement by color de-confinement

High energy heavy ion collisions lead to the formation of a strong coupling de-confined phase in which the lightest glueballs are numerous and stable. We analyze how their properties manifest themselves in experimental spectra and show that they provide a good signature for color de-confinement.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure