Quark Propagation in the Quark-Gluon Plasma

It has recently been suggested that the quark-gluon plasma formed in heavy-ion collisions behaves as a nearly ideal fluid. That behavior may be understood if the quark and antiquark mean-free- paths are very small in the system, leading to a "sticky molasses" description of the plasma, as advocated by the Stony Brook group. This behavior may be traced to the fact that there are relatively low-energy $q\bar{q}$ resonance states in the plasma leading to very large scattering lengths for the quarks. These resonances have been found in lattice simulation of QCD using the maximum entropy method (MEM). We have used a chiral quark model, which provides a simple representation of effects due to instanton dynamics, to study the resonances obtained using the MEM scheme. In the present work we use our model to study the optical potential of a quark in the quark-gluon plasma and calculate the quark mean-free-path. Our results represent a specific example of the dynamics of the plasma as described by the Stony Brook group.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, revtex

Squeezed gluon vacuum and the global colour model of QCD

We discuss how the vacuum model of Celenza and Shakin with a squeezed gluon condensate can explain the existence of an infrared singular gluon propagator frequently used in calculations within the global colour model. In particular, it reproduces a recently proposed QCD-motivated model where low energy chiral parameters were computed as a function of a dynamically generated gluon mass. We show how the strength of the confining interaction of this gluon propagator and the value of the physical gluon condensate may be connected.Comment: 13 pages, LaTe

Landau-gauge condensates from the quark propagator on the lattice

We compute the dimension-2 condensate, , and the dimension-4 mixed condensate, , from the recent quenched lattice results for the quark propagator in the Landau gauge. We fit the lattice data to the Operator Product Expansion in the "fiducial" region 1.2 GeV < Q < 3 GeV. Our result for the dynamical gluon mass at the scale of 10 GeV^2 is m_A=600-650 MeV, in agreement with independent determinations. For the mixed Landau gauge condensate of dimension-4 we get alpha_s = (-0.11 +/- 0.03) GeV^4. This value is an order of magnitude larger than the gluon condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, references adde

Quark and Nucleon Self-Energy in Dense Matter

In a recent work we introduced a nonlocal version of the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio(NJL) model that was designed to generate a quark self-energy in Euclidean space that was similar to that obtained in lattice simulations of QCD. In the present work we carry out related calculations in Minkowski space, so that we can study the effects of the significant vector and axial-vector interactions that appear in extended NJL models and which play an important role in the study of the $\rho$, $\omega$ and $a_1$ mesons. We study the modification of the quark self-energy in the presence of matter and find that our model reproduces the behavior of the quark condensate predicted by the model-independent relation $_{\rho} = <\bar qq>_0(1-\sigma_N\rho_N/f_{\pi}^2m_{\pi}^2 +...)$, where $\sigma_N$ is the pion-nucleon sigma term and $\rho_N$ is the density of nuclear matter. (Since we do not include a model of confinement, our study is restricted to the analysis of quark matter. We provide some discussion of the modification of the above formula for quark matter.) The inclusion of a quark current mass leads to a second-order phase transition for the restoration of chiral symmetry. That restoration is about 80% at twice nuclear matter density for the model considered in this work. We also find that the part of the quark self-energy that is explicitly dependent upon density has a strong negative Lorentz-scalar term and a strong positive Lorentz-vector term, which is analogous to the self-energy found for the nucleon in nuclear matter when one makes use of the Dirac equation for the nucleon. In this work we calculate the nucleon self -energy in nuclear matter using our model of the quark self-energy and obtain satisfactory results.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, revte

On the Relativistic Description of the Nucleus

We discuss a relativistic theory of the atomic nuclei in the framework of the hamiltonian formalism and of the mesonic model of the nucleus. Attention is paid to the translational invariance of the theory. Our approach is centered on the concept of spectral amplitude, a function in the Dirac spinor space. We derive a Lorentz covariant equation for the latter, which requires as an input the baryon self-energy. For this we either postulate the most general Lorentz-Poincar\'e invariant expression or perform a calculation via a Bethe-Salpeter equation starting from a nucleon-nucleus interaction. We discuss the features of the nuclear spectrum obtained in the first instance. Finally the general constraints the self-energy should satisfy because of analyticity and Poincar\'e covariance are discussed

QCD Sum Rules Description of Nucleons in Asymmetric Nuclear Matter

We calculate the nucleon parameters in isospin asymmetric nuclear matter using the QCD sum rules. The nucleon self-energies are expressed in terms of the in-medium values of QCD condensates. The simple approximate expressions for the self-energies are obtained in terms of these condensates. Relation between successive inclusion of the condensates and the meson-exchange picture of the nucleon interaction with medium is analyzed. The values of the self-energies and of the symmetry energy agree with those obtained by the methods of nuclear physics.Comment: 40 pages, 6 figure

Impact of Nucleon Mass Shift on the Freeze Out Process

The freeze out of a massive nucleon gas through a finite layer with time-like normal is studied. The impact of in-medium nucleon mass shift on the freeze out process is investigated. A considerable modification of the thermodynamical variables temperature, flow-velocity, energy density and particle density has been found. Due to the nucleon mass shift the freeze out particle distribution functions are changed noticeably in comparison with evaluations, which use vacuum nucleon mass.Comment: submitted to Physical Review

Squeezed Gluon Condensate and Quark Confinement in the Global Color Model of QCD

We discuss how the presence of a squeezed gluon vacuum might lead to quark confinement in the framework of the global colour model of QCD. Using reduced phase space quantization of massive vector theory we construct a Lorentz invariant and colourless squeezed gluon condensate and show that it induces a permanent, nonlocal quark interaction (delta-function in 4-momentum space), which according to Munczek and Nemirovsky might lead to quark confinement. Our approach makes it possible to relate the strength of this effective confining quark interaction to the strength of the physical gluon condensate.Comment: 18 pages LaTeX, to appear in Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Relativistic Hamiltonians in many-body theories

We discuss the description of a many-body nuclear system using Hamiltonians that contain the nucleon relativistic kinetic energy and potentials with relativistic corrections. Through the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, the field theoretical problem of interacting nucleons and mesons is mapped to an equivalent one in terms of relativistic potentials, which are then expanded at some order in 1/m_N. The formalism is applied to the Hartree problem in nuclear matter, showing how the results of the relativistic mean field theory can be recovered over a wide range of densities.Comment: 14 pages, uses REVTeX and epsfig, 3 postscript figures; a postscript version of the paper is available by anonymous ftp at ftp://carmen.to.infn.it/pub/depace/papers/951

Nuclear effects in Deep Inelastic Scattering of polarized electrons off polarized 3He and the neutron spin structure functions

It is shown that the nuclear effects playing a relevant role in Deep Inelastic Scattering of polarized electrons by polarized $^3$He are mainly those arising from the effective proton and neutron polarizations generated by the $S'$ and $D$ waves in $^3$He. A simple and reliable equation relating the neutron, $g_1^n$, and $^3$He, $g_1^3$, spin structure functions is proposed. It is shown that the measurement of the first moment of the $^3$He structure function can provide a significant check of the Bjorken Sum Rule.Comment: 11 pages (revTeX), DFUPG 75/93; 5 (postscript) figures available upon request from the author