Inclusion of Quantum Fluctuations in Wave Packet Dynamics

We discuss a method by which quantum fluctuations can be included in microscopic transport models based on wave packets that are not energy eigenstates. By including the next-to-leading order term in the cumulant expansion of the statistical weight, which corresponds to the wave packets having Poisson energy distributions, we obtain a much improved global description of the quantum statistical properties of the many-body system. In the case of atomic nuclei, exemplified by 12C and 40Ca, the standard liquid-drop results are reproduced at low temperatures and a phase transformation to a fragment gas occurs as the temperature is raised. The treatment can be extended to dynamical scenarios by means of a Langevin force emulating the transitions between the wave packets. The general form of the associated transport coefficients is derived and it is shown that the appropriate microcanonical equilibrium distribution is achieved in the course of the time evolution. Finally, invoking Fermi's golden rule, we derive specific expressions for the transport coefficients and verify that they satisfy the fluctuation-dissipation theorem.Comment: uuencoded revtex body and 8 ps figures (16 pages total

Baryon-strangeness correlations: a diagnostic of strongly interacting matter

The correlation between baryon number and strangeness elucidates the nature of strongly interacting matter, such as that formed transiently in high-energy nuclear collisions. This diagnostic can be extracted theoretically from lattice QCD calculations and experimentally from event-by-event fluctuations. The analysis of present lattice results above the critical temperature severely limits the presence of q-qbar bound states, thus supporting a picture of independent (quasi)quarks.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, Revised: several sign typos have been fixed (the PRL version is correct

Animal Mind as Approached by the Transpersonal: Notion of Collective Conscious Experience

The discussion of animal mind in this paper is based on an idealist philosophy contending that only conscious experience is real, based on the transpersonal notion of collective conscious experience. The latter has earlier been explained by the author as experience referred to a group of humans as the subject, the We. Here it is contended that also a group of humans and animals can be seen as the subject of collective conscious experiences. The author argues that the notion of collective conscious experience provides a possibility for studying the problems of animal mind and the related human problem of “other minds” in a detailed and rational way

Fission-fragment mass distributions from strongly damped shape evolution

Random walks on five-dimensional potential-energy surfaces were recently found to yield fission-fragment mass distributions that are in remarkable agreement with experimental data. Within the framework of the Smoluchowski equation of motion, which is appropriate for highly dissipative evolutions, we discuss the physical justification for that treatment and investigate the sensitivity of the resulting mass yields to a variety of model ingredients, including in particular the dimensionality and discretization of the shape space and the structure of the dissipation tensor. The mass yields are found to be relatively robust, suggesting that the simple random walk presents a useful calculational tool. Quantitatively refined results can be obtained by including physically plausible forms of the dissipation, which amounts to simulating the Brownian shape motion in an anisotropic medium.Comment: 14 pages, 11 ps figure

Dynamical simulation of DCC formation in Bjorken rods

Using a semi-classical treatment of the linear sigma model, we simulate the dynamical evolution of an initially hot cylindrical rod endowed with a longitudinal Bjorken scaling expansion (a ``Bjorken rod''). The field equation is propagated until full decoupling has occurred and the asymptotic many-body state of free pions is then obtained by a suitable Fourier decomposition of the field and a subsequent stochastic determination of the number of quanta in each elementary mode. The resulting transverse pion spectrum exhibits visible enhancements below 200 MeV due to the parametric amplification caused by the oscillatory relaxation of the chiral order parameter. Ensembles of such final states are subjected to various event-by-event analyses. The factorial moments of the multiplicity distribution suggest that the soft pions are non-statistical. Furthermore, their emission patterns exhibit azimuthal correlations that have a bearing on the domain size in the source. Finally, the distribution of the neutral pion fraction shows a significant broadening for the soft pions which grows steadily as the number of azimuthal segments is increased. All of these features are indicative of disoriented chiral condensates and it may be interesting to apply similar analyses to actual data from high-energy nuclear collision experiments.Comment: 38 pages total, incl 26 ps figures ([email protected]

Effect of friction on disoriented chiral condensate formation

We have investigated the effect of friction on the DCC domain formation. We solve the Newton equation of motion for the O(4) fields, with quenched initial condition. The initial fields are randomly distributed in a Gaussian form. In one dimensional expansion, on the average, large DCC domains can not be formed. However, in some particular orbits, large instabilities may occur. This possibility also greatly diminishes with the introduction of friction. But, if the friction is large, the system may be overdamped and then, there is a possibility of large DCC domain formation in some events.Comment: 9 pages, including figure

Dissipation, noise and DCC domain formation

We investigate the effect of friction on domain formation in disoriented chiral condensate. We solve the equation of motion of the linear sigma model, in the Hartree approximation, including a friction and a white noise term. For quenched initial condition, we find that even in presence of noise and dissipation domain like structure emerges after a few fermi of evolution. Domain size as large as 5 fm can be formed.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Deciphering Deconfinement in Correlations of Conserved Charges

Diagonal and off-diagonal flavor and conserved charge susceptibilities reveal the prevalent degrees of freedom of heated strongly interacting matter. Results obtained from lattice simulations are compared with various model estimates in an effort to weed down various possible pictures of a quark gluon plasma. We argue that the vanishing of the off-diagonal quark flavor susceptibilities and its derivatives with respect to chemical potential, at temperatures above 1.5Tc, can only be understood in a picture of a gas or liquid composed of quasi-particles which carry the same quantum numbers as quarks and antiquarks. A potential new observable, blind to neutral and non-strange particles, is introduced and related via isospin symmetry to the ratio of susceptibilities of baryonic strangeness to strangeness generated in the excited matter created at RHIC.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, LATEX, To appear in the proceedings of the International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter, Los Angeles, CA, Mar 26-31, 200

INCORPORATION OF QUANTUM STATISTICAL FEATURES IN MOLECULAR DYNAMICS

We formulate a method for incorporating quantum fluctuations into molecular- dynamics simulations of many-body systems, such as those employed for energetic nuclear collision processes. Based on Fermi's Golden Rule, we allow spontaneous transitions to occur between the wave packets which are not energy eigenstates. The ensuing diffusive evolution in the space of the wave packet parameters exhibits appealing physical properties, including relaxation towards quantum- statistical equilibrium.Comment: 8 latex pages + 1 uuencoded ps figur