Photon production in relativistic nuclear collisions at SPS and RHIC energies

Chiral Lagrangians are used to compute the production rate of photons from the hadronic phase of relativistic nuclear collisions. Special attention is paid to the role of the pseudovector a_1 meson. Calculations that include reactions with strange mesons, hadronic form factors and vector spectral densities consistent with dilepton production, as well as the emission from a quark-gluon plasma and primordial nucleon-nucleon collisions, reproduce the photon spectra measured at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). Predictions for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) are made.Comment: Work presented at the 26th annual Montreal-Rochester-Syracuse-Toronto conference (MRST 2004) on high energy physics, Montreal, QC, Canada, 12-14 May 2004. 8 pages, 3 figure

Properties of vector mesons at finite temperature -effective lagrangian approach-

The properties of $\rho$-mesons at finite temperature ($T$) are examined with an effective chiral lagrangian in which vector and axial-vector mesons are included as massive Yang-Mills fields of the chiral symmetry. It is shown that, at $T^2$ order, the effective mass is not changed but only the mixing effect in vector and axial-vector correlator appears.Comment: 13 pages (REVTeX), two figures

Between overt and covert research: concealment and disclosure in an ethnographic study of commercial hospitality

This article examines the ways in which problems of concealment emerged in an ethnographic study of a suburban bar and considers how disclosure of the research aims, the recruitment of informants, and elicitation of information was negotiated throughout the fieldwork. The case study demonstrates how the social context and the relationships with specific informants determined overtness or covertness in the research. It is argued that the existing literature on covert research and covert methods provides an inappropriate frame of reference with which to understand concealment in fieldwork. The article illustrates why concealment is sometimes necessary, and often unavoidable, and concludes that the criticisms leveled against covert methods should not stop the fieldworker from engaging in research that involves covertness

Chiral Fluid Dynamics and Collapse of Vacuum Bubbles

We study the expansion dynamics of a quark-antiquark plasma droplet from an initial state with restored chiral symmetry. The calculations are made within the linear $\sigma$ model scaled with an additional scalar field representing the gluon condensate. We solve numerically the classical equations of motion for the meson fields coupled to the fluid-dynamical equations for the plasma. Strong space-time oscillations of the meson fields are observed in the course of the chiral transition. A new phenomenon, the formation and collapse of vacuum bubbles, is also predicted. The particle production due to the bremsstrahlung of the meson fields is estimated.Comment: 12 pages Revtex,5 figures, Figures modified, minor changes in text. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Temperature Dependence of Electric and Magnetic Gluon Condensates

The contribution of Lorentz non-scalar operators to finite temperature correlation functions is discussed. Using the local duality approach for the one-pion matrix element of a product of two vector currents, the temperature dependence of the average gluonic stress tensor is estimated in the chiral limit to be $\langle{\bf E}^2 +{\bf B}^2\rangle_{T}=\frac{\pi^2}{10}bT^4$. At a normalization point $\mu=0.5$ GeV we obtain $b\approx 1.1$. Together with the known temperature dependence of the Lorentz scalar gluon condensate we are able to infer $\langle{\bf E}^2\rangle_T$ and $\langle{\bf B}^2\rangle_T$ separately in the low-temperature hadronic phase.Comment: 11 pages, TPI-MINN-92/37-

Off-shell effects in dilepton production from hot interacting mesons

The production of dielectrons in reactions involving a_1 mesons and pions is studied. We compare results obtained with different phenomenological Lagrangians that have been used in connection with hadronic matter and finite nuclei. We insist on the necessity for those interactions to satisfy known empirical properties of the strong interaction. Large off-shell effects in dielectron production are found and some consequences for the interpretation of heavy ion data are outlined. We also compare with results obtained using experimentally-extracted spectral functions.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e, 2 figure

A dynamical chiral bag model

We study a dynamical chiral bag model, in which massless fermions are confined within an impenetrable but movable bag coupled to meson fields. The self-consistent motion of the bag is obtained by solving the equations of motion exactly assuming spherical symmetry. When the bag interacts with an external meson wave we find three different kinds of resonances: {\it fermionic}, {\it geometric}, and $\sigma$-resonances. We discuss the phenomenological implications of our results.Comment: Two columns, 11 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Physical Review