4,580 research outputs found
Quarkonia and Heavy-Quark Relaxation Times in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
A thermodynamic T-matrix approach for elastic 2-body interactions is employed
to calculate spectral functions of open and hidden heavy-quark systems in the
Quark-Gluon Plasma. This enables the evaluation of quarkonium bound-state
properties and heavy-quark diffusion on a common basis and thus to obtain
mutual constraints. The two-body interaction kernel is approximated within a
potential picture for spacelike momentum transfers. An effective
field-theoretical model combining color-Coulomb and confining terms is
implemented with relativistic corrections and for different color channels.
Four pertinent model parameters, characterizing the coupling strengths and
screening, are adjusted to reproduce the color-average heavy-quark free energy
as computed in thermal lattice QCD. The approach is tested against vacuum
spectroscopy in the open (D, B) and hidden (Psi and Upsilon) flavor sectors, as
well as in the high-energy limit of elastic perturbative QCD scattering.
Theoretical uncertainties in the static reduction scheme of the 4-dimensional
Bethe-Salpeter equation are elucidated. The quarkonium spectral functions are
used to calculate Euclidean correlators which are discussed in light of lattice
QCD results, while heavy-quark relaxation rates and diffusion coefficients are
extracted utilizing a Fokker-Planck equation.Comment: 33 pages, 28 figure
Medium Modifications of the Rho Meson at CERN/SPS Energies
Rho meson propagation in hot hadronic matter is studied in a model with
coupling to states. Medium modifications are induced by a change of
the pion dispersion relation through collisions with nucleons and in
the fireball. Maintaining gauge invariance dilepton production is calculated
and compared to the recent data of the CERES collaboration in central S+Au
collisions at 200 GeV/u. The observed enhancement of the rate below the rho
meson mass can be largely accounted for.Comment: 10 pages RevTeX and 2 figures (uuencoded .ps-files
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
Dileptons in High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions
The current status of our understanding of dilepton production in
ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed with special emphasis on
signals from the (approach towards) chirally restored and deconfined phases. In
particular, recent results of the CERN-SPS low-energy runs are compared to
model predictions and interpreted. Prospects for RHIC experiments are given.Comment: Invited talk at ICPAQGP, Jaipur, India, Nov. 26-30, 2001; 1 Latex and
9 eps-/ps-files Reoprt No.: SUNY-NTG-02-0
Sensitivity of meteoric smoke distribution to microphysical properties and atmospheric conditions
International audienceMeteoroids entering the Earth's atmopsphere experience strong deceleration and ablate, whereupon the resulting material is believed to re-condense to nanometre-size "smoke particles". These particles are thought to be of great importance for many middle atmosphere phenomena, such as noctilucent clouds, polar mesospheric summer echoes, metal layers, and heterogeneous chemistry. The properties and distribution of meteoric smoke depend on poorly known or highly variable factors such as the amount, composition and velocity of incoming meteoric material, the efficiency of coagulation, and the state and circulation of the atmosphere. This work uses a one-dimensional microphysical model to investigate the sensitivities of meteoric smoke properties to these poorly known or highly variable factors. The resulting uncertainty or variability of meteoric smoke quantities such as number density, mass density, and size distribution are determined. It is found that the two most important factors are the efficiency of the coagulation and background vertical wind. The seasonal variation of the vertical wind in the mesosphere implies strong global and temporal variations in the meteoric smoke distribution. This contrasts the simplistic picture of a homogeneous global meteoric smoke layer, which is currently assumed in many studies of middle atmospheric phenomena. In particular, our results suggest a very low number of nanometre-sized smoke particles at the summer mesopause where they are thought to serve as condensation nuclei for noctilucent clouds
Distribution of meteoric smoke ? sensitivity to microphysical properties and atmospheric conditions
International audienceMeteoroids entering the Earth's atmosphere experience strong deceleration and ablate, whereupon the resulting material is believed to re-condense to nanometre-size "smoke particles". These particles are thought to be of great importance for many middle atmosphere phenomena, such as noctilucent clouds, polar mesospheric summer echoes, metal layers, and heterogeneous chemistry. The properties and distribution of meteoric smoke depend on poorly known or highly variable factors such as the amount, composition and velocity of incoming meteoric material, the efficiency of coagulation, and the state and circulation of the atmosphere. This work uses a one-dimensional microphysical model to investigate the sensitivities of meteoric smoke properties to these poorly known or highly variable factors. The resulting uncertainty or variability of meteoric smoke quantities such as number density, mass density, and size distribution are determined. It is found that the two most important factors are the efficiency of the coagulation and background vertical wind. The seasonal variation of the vertical wind in the mesosphere implies strong global and temporal variations in the meteoric smoke distribution. This contrasts the simplistic picture of a homogeneous global meteoric smoke layer, which is currently assumed in many studies of middle atmospheric phenomena. In particular, our results suggest a very low number of nanometre-sized smoke particles at the summer mesopause where they are thought to serve as condensation nuclei for noctilucent clouds
Isospin Fluctuations in QCD and Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions
We address the role of fluctuations in strongly interacting matter during the
dense stages of a heavy-ion collision through its electromagnetic emission.
Fluctuations of isospin charge are considered in a thermal system at rest as
well as in a moving hadronic fluid at fixed proper time within a finite bin of
pseudo-rapidity. In the former case, we use general thermodynamic relations to
establish a connection between fluctuations and the space-like screening limit
of the retarded photon self-energy, which directly relates to the emissivities
of dileptons and photons. Effects of hadronic interactions are highlighted
through two illustrative calculations. In the latter case, we show that a
finite time scale inherent in the evolution of a heavy-ion collision
implies that equilibrium fluctuations involve both space-like and time-like
components of the photon self-energy in the system. Our study of non-thermal
effects, explored here through a stochastic treatment, shows that an early and
large fluctuation in isospin survives only if it is accompanied by a large
temperature fluctuation at freeze-out, an unlikely scenario in hadronic phases
with large heat capacity. We point out prospects for the future which include:
(1) A determination of the Debye mass of the system at the dilute freeze-out
stage of a heavy-ion collision, and (2) A delineation of the role of charge
fluctuations during the dense stages of the collision through a study of
electromagnetic emissivities.Comment: 12 pages ReVTeX incl. 4 ps-fig
Evaluating chiral symmetry restoration through the use of sum rules
We pursue the idea of assessing chiral restoration via in-medium
modifications of hadronic spectral functions of chiral partners. The usefulness
of sum rules in this endeavor is illustrated, focusing on the vector and
axial-vector channels. We first present an update on constructing quantitative
results for pertinent vacuum spectral functions. These spectral functions serve
as a basis upon which the in-medium spectral functions can be constructed. A
striking feature of our analysis of the vacuum spectral functions is the need
to include excited resonances, dictated by satisfying the Weinberg-type sum
rules. This includes excited states in both the vector and axial-vector
channels. Preliminary results for the finite temperature vector spectral
function are presented. Based on a rho spectral function tested in dilepton
data which develops a shoulder at low energies, we find that the rho' peak
flattens off. The flattening may be a sign of chiral restoration, though a
study of the finite temperature axial-vector spectral function remains to be
carried out.Comment: 9 pages, conference proceedings from Resonance Workshop at UT Austin,
March 5-7 201
Photon and dilepton emission rates from high density quark matter
We compute the rates of real and virtual photon (dilepton) emission from
dense QCD matter in the color-flavor locked (CFL) phase, focusing on results at
moderate densities (3-5 times the nuclear saturation density) and temperatures
MeV. We pursue two approaches to evaluate the electromagnetic
(e.m.) response of the CFL ground state: (i) a direct evaluation of the photon
self energy using quark particle/-hole degrees of freedom, and (ii) a Hidden
Local Symmetry (HLS) framework based on generalized mesonic excitations where
the meson is introduced as a gauge boson of a local SU(3) color-flavor
group. The coupling to generalized two-pion states induces a finite
width and allows to address the issue of vector meson dominance (VMD) in the
CFL phase. We compare the calculated emissivities (dilepton rates) to those
arising from standard hadronic approaches including in-medium effects. For
rather large superconducting gaps (several tens of MeV at moderate densities),
as suggested by both perturbative and nonperturbative estimates, the dilepton
rates from CFL quark matter turn out to be very similar to those obtained in
hadronic many-body calculations, especially for invariant masses above
GeV. A similar observation holds for (real) photon production.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figure
Hadro-Chemistry and Evolution of (Anti-) Baryon Densities at RHIC
The consequences of hadro-chemical freezeout for the subsequent hadron gas
evolution in central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC energies are
discussed with special emphasis on effects due to antibaryons. Contrary to
naive expectations, their individual conservation, as implied by experimental
data, has significant impact on the chemical off-equilibrium composition of
hadronic matter at collider energies. This may reflect on a variety of
observables including source sizes and dilepton spectra.Comment: 4 pages ReVTeX incl. 3 ps-figs, submitted to PR
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