Search for Global Metric Anisotropy in Type Ia Supernova Data

We examine the Type 1a supernova data in order to determine if it shows any signal of large scale anisotropy. The anisotropy is modelled by an extended G\"{o}del metric, which incorporates expansion along with rotation. The model is smoothly connected to the usual FRW type, while expressing anisotropic metric effects depending on certain parameters. We find no significant signal of anisotropy in the data. We obtain bounds on an anisotropic redshift versus magnitude relationship, and accompanying parameters of the G\"{o}del-Obukhov metric.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, minor changes, to be published in Modern Physics Letters

The Quark Gluon Pion Plasma

While it is commonly believed that there is a {\it direct} transition from the hadronic to a quark gluon phase at high temperature, it would be prejudicial to rule out a sequence of dynamically generated intermediate scales. Using as guide, an effective lagrangian with unconfined gluons and constituent quarks, interacting with a chiral multiplet, we examine a scenario in which the system undergoes first-order transitions at $T_{comp}$, the compositeness scale of the pions, at $T_{\chi}$, the scale for spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, and at $T_c$, the confinement temperature. We find that at current energies, it is likely that the formation temperature of the plasma, $T_0 < T_{comp}$, and that this is therefore a quark gluon pion plasma (QGPP) rather than the usual quark gluon plasma (QGP). We propose some dilepton-related signatures of this scenario.Comment: Rewritten, new figure