Asymptotic Behavior of the Correlator for Polyakov Loops

The asymptotic behavior of the correlator for Polyakov loop operators separated by a large distance $R$ is determined for high temperature QCD. It is dominated by nonperturbative effects related to the exchange of magnetostatic gluons. To analyze the asymptotic behavior, the problem is formulated in terms of the effective field theory of QCD in 3 space dimensions. The Polyakov loop operator is expanded in terms of local gauge-invariant operators constructed out of the magnetostatic gauge field, with coefficients that can be calculated using resummed perturbation theory. The asymptotic behavior of the correlator is $\exp(-MR)/R$, where $M$ is the mass of the lowest-lying glueball in $(2+1)$-dimensional QCD. This result implies that existing lattice calculations of the Polyakov loop correlator at the highest temperatures available do not probe the true asymptotic region in $R$.Comment: 10 pages, NUHEP-TH-94-2

The non-Abelian Debye screening length beyond leading order

In quantum electrodynamics, static electric fields are screened at non-zero temperatures by charges in the plasma. The inverse screening length, or Debye mass, may be analyzed in perturbation theory and is of order $eT$ at relativistic temperatures. An analogous situation occurs when non-Abelian gauge theories are studied perturbatively, but the perturbative analysis breaks down when corrections of order $e^2 T$ are considered. At this order, the Debye mass depends on the non-perturbative physics of confinement, and a perturbative ``definition'' of the Debye mass as the pole of a gluon propagator does not even make sense. In this work, we show how the Debye mass can be defined non-perturbatively in a manifestly gauge invariant manner (in vector-like gauge theories with zero chemical potential). In addition, we show how the $O(e^2 T)$ correction could be determined by a fairly simple, three-dimensional, numerical lattice calculation of the perimeter-law behavior of large, adjoint-charge Wilson loops.Comment: 30 pages, revtex format, 9 postscript figures included using epsf.st

First Post-Operative Urinary Kidney Injury Biomarkers and Association with the Duration of AKI in the TRIBE-AKI Cohort

Background: We previously demonstrated that assessment of the duration of AKI, in addition to magnitude of rise in creatinine alone, adds prognostic information for long-term survival. We evaluated whether post-operative kidney injury biomarkers in urine collected immediately after cardiac surgery associate with duration of serum creatinine elevation. Methods: We studied 1199 adults undergoing cardiac surgery in a prospective cohort study (TRIBE-AKI) and examined the association between the levels of five urinary biomarkers individually at 0–6 hours after surgery: interleukin-18 (IL-18), neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1), liver fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) and albumin with duration of serum creatinine-based AKIN criteria for AKI (0 (no AKI), 1–2, 3–6, ≥7 days). Results: Overall, 407 (34%) patients had at least stage 1 AKI, of whom 251 (61.7%) had duration of 1–2 days, 118 (28.9%) had duration 3–6 days, and 38 (9.3%) had duration of ≥7 days. Higher concentrations of all biomarkers (per log increase) were independently associated with a greater odds of a longer duration of AKI; odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals using ordinal logistic regression were the following: IL-18: 1.22, 1.13–1.32; KIM-1: 1.36, 1.21–1.52; albumin 1.20, 1.09–1.32; L-FABP 1.11, 1.04–1.19; NGAL 1.06, 1.00–1.14). AKI duration of 7 days or longer was associated with a 5-fold adjusted risk of mortality at 3 years. Conclusions: There was an independent dose-response association between urinary levels of injury biomarkers immediately after cardiac surgery and longer duration of AKI. Duration of AKI was also associated with long term mortality. Future studies should explore the potential utility of these urinary kidney injury biomarkers to enrich enrollment of patients at risk for longer duration of AKI into trials of interventions to prevent or treat post-operative AKI.</p

Covariant derivative expansion of Yang-Mills effective action at high temperatures

Integrating out fast varying quantum fluctuations about Yang--Mills fields A_i and A_4, we arrive at the effective action for those fields at high temperatures. Assuming that the fields A_i and A_4 are slowly varying but that the amplitude of A_4 is arbitrary, we find a non-trivial effective gauge invariant action both in the electric and magnetic sectors. Our results can be used for studying correlation functions at high temperatures beyond the dimensional reduction approximation, as well as for estimating quantum weights of classical static configurations such as dyons.Comment: Minor changes. References added. Paper accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

The Finite Temperature SU(2) Savvidy Model with a Non-trivial Polyakov Loop

We calculate the complete one-loop effective potential for SU(2) gauge bosons at temperature T as a function of two variables: phi, the angle associated with a non-trivial Polyakov loop, and H, a constant background chromomagnetic field. Using techniques broadly applicable to finite temperature field theories, we develop both low and high temperature expansions. At low temperatures, the real part of the effective potential V_R indicates a rich phase structure, with a discontinuous alternation between confined (phi=pi) and deconfined phases (phi=0). The background field H moves slowly upward from its zero-temperature value as T increases, in such a way that sqrt(gH)/(pi T) is approximately an integer. Beyond a certain temperature on the order of sqrt(gH), the deconfined phase is always preferred. At high temperatures, where asymptotic freedom applies, the deconfined phase phi=0 is always preferred, and sqrt(gH) is of order g^2(T)T. The imaginary part of the effective potential is non-zero at the global minimum of V_R for all temperatures. A non-perturbative magnetic screening mass of the form M_m = cg^2(T)T with a sufficiently large coefficient c removes this instability at high temperature, leading to a stable high-temperature phase with phi=0 and H=0, characteristic of a weakly-interacting gas of gauge particles. The value of M_m obtained is comparable with lattice estimates.Comment: 28 pages, 5 eps figures; RevTeX 3 with graphic

Non-perturbative dynamics of hot non-Abelian gauge fields: beyond leading log approximation

Many aspects of high-temperature gauge theories, such as the electroweak baryon number violation rate, color conductivity, and the hard gluon damping rate, have previously been understood only at leading logarithmic order (that is, neglecting effects suppressed only by an inverse logarithm of the gauge coupling). We discuss how to systematically go beyond leading logarithmic order in the analysis of physical quantities. Specifically, we extend to next-to-leading-log order (NLLO) the simple leading-log effective theory due to Bodeker that describes non-perturbative color physics in hot non-Abelian plasmas. A suitable scaling analysis is used to show that no new operators enter the effective theory at next-to-leading-log order. However, a NLLO calculation of the color conductivity is required, and we report the resulting value. Our NLLO result for the color conductivity can be trivially combined with previous numerical work by G. Moore to yield a NLLO result for the hot electroweak baryon number violation rate.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Hidden Non-Abelian Gauge Symmetries in Doped Planar Antiferromagnets

We investigate the possibility of hidden non-Abelian Local Phase symmetries in large-U doped planar Hubbard antiferromagnets, believed to simulate the physics of two-dimensional (magnetic) superconductors. We present a spin-charge separation ansatz, appropriate to incorporate holon spin flip, which allows for such a hidden local gauge symmetry to emerge in the effective action. The group is of the form $SU(2)\otimes U_S(1) \otimes U_E(1)$, where SU(2) is a local non-Abelian group associated with the spin degrees of freedom, U_E(1) is that of ordinary electromagnetism, associated with the electric charge of the holes, and U_S(1) is a `statistical' Abelian gauge group pertaining to the fractional statistics of holes on the spatial plane. In a certain regime of the parameters of the model, namely strong U_S(1) and weak SU(2), there is the possibility of dynamical formation of a holon condensate. This leads to a dynamical breaking of $SU(2) \to U(1)$. The resulting Abelian effective theory is closely related to an earlier model proposed as the continuum limit of large-spin planar doped antiferromagnets, which lead to an unconventional scenario for two-dimensional parity-invariant superconductivity.Comment: 32 pages LATEX, one figure. (More details given in the passage from the Hubbard model to the long wavelength lattice gauge theory; one figure added; no changes in the conclusions.

Heavy Quark Potentials in Quenched QCD at High Temperature

Heavy quark potentials are investigated at high temperatures. The temperature range covered by the analysis extends from $T$ values just below the deconfinement temperature up to about $4 T_c$ in the deconfined phase. We simulated the pure gauge sector of QCD on lattices with temporal extents of 4, 6 and 8 with spatial volumes of $32^3$. On the smallest lattice a tree level improved action was employed while in the other two cases the standard Wilson action was used. Below $T_c$ we find a temperature dependent logarithmic term contributing to the confinement potential and observe a string tension which decreases with rising temperature but retains a finite value at the deconfinement transition. Above $T_c$ the potential is Debye-screened, however simple perturbative predictions do not apply.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure

The future of social is personal: the potential of the personal data store

This chapter argues that technical architectures that facilitate the longitudinal, decentralised and individual-centric personal collection and curation of data will be an important, but partial, response to the pressing problem of the autonomy of the data subject, and the asymmetry of power between the subject and large scale service providers/data consumers. Towards framing the scope and role of such Personal Data Stores (PDSes), the legalistic notion of personal data is examined, and it is argued that a more inclusive, intuitive notion expresses more accurately what individuals require in order to preserve their autonomy in a data-driven world of large aggregators. Six challenges towards realising the PDS vision are set out: the requirement to store data for long periods; the difficulties of managing data for individuals; the need to reconsider the regulatory basis for third-party access to data; the need to comply with international data handling standards; the need to integrate privacy-enhancing technologies; and the need to future-proof data gathering against the evolution of social norms. The open experimental PDS platform INDX is introduced and described, as a means of beginning to address at least some of these six challenges

Quarkonium Suppression

I discuss quarkonium suppression in equilibriated strongly interacting matter. After a brief review of basic features of quarkonium production I discuss the application of recent lattice data on the heavy quark potential to the problem of quarkonium dissociation as well as the problem of direct lattice determination of quarkonium properties in finite temperature lattice QCD.Comment: Invited plenary talk presented on 4th International Conference on Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma (ICPAQGP-2001), November 26-30, 2001, Jaipur; 12 pp, LaTeX, uses pramana.st