271 research outputs found
Review of Speculative "Disaster Scenarios" at RHIC
We discuss speculative disaster scenarios inspired by hypothetical new
fundamental processes that might occur in high energy relativistic heavy ion
collisions. We estimate the parameters relevant to black hole production; we
find that they are absurdly small. We show that other accelerator and
(especially) cosmic ray environments have already provided far more auspicious
opportunities for transition to a new vacuum state, so that existing
observations provide stringent bounds. We discuss in most detail the
possibility of producing a dangerous strangelet. We argue that four separate
requirements are necessary for this to occur: existence of large stable
strangelets, metastability of intermediate size strangelets, negative charge
for strangelets along the stability line, and production of intermediate size
strangelets in the heavy ion environment. We discuss both theoretical and
experimental reasons why each of these appears unlikely; in particular, we know
of no plausible suggestion for why the third or especially the fourth might be
true. Given minimal physical assumptions the continued existence of the Moon,
in the form we know it, despite billions of years of cosmic ray exposure,
provides powerful empirical evidence against the possibility of dangerous
strangelet production.Comment: 28 pages, REVTeX; minor revisions for publication (Reviews of Modern
Physics, ca. Oct. 2000); email to [email protected]
Unusual bound states of quark matter within the NJL model
Properties of dense quark matter in and out of chemical equilibrium are
studied within the SU(3) Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. In addition to the 4-fermion
scalar and vector terms the model includes also the 6-fermion flavour mixing
interaction. First we study a novel form of deconfined matter, meso-matter,
which is composed of equal number of quarks and antiquarks. It can be thought
of as a strongly compressed meson gas where mesons are melted into their
elementary constituents, quarks and antiquarks. Strongly bound states in this
quark-antiquark matter are predicted for all flavour combinations of
quark-antiquark pairs. The maximum binding energy reaches up to 180 MeV per
pair for mixtures with about 70% of strange quark-antiquark pairs. Equilibrated
baryon-rich quark matter with various flavour compositions is also studied. In
this case only shallow bound states appear in systems with a significant
admixture (about 40%) of strange quarks (strangelets). Their binding energies
are quite sensitive to the relative strengths of scalar and vector
interactions. The common property of all these bound states is that they appear
at high particle densities when the chiral symmetry is nearly restored. Thermal
properties of meso-matter as well as chemically equilibrated strange quark
matter are also investigated. Possible decay modes of these bound states are
discussed.Comment: 26 pages, 16 PostScript figures, RevTe
Nonequilibrium Evolution of Correlation Functions: A Canonical Approach
We study nonequilibrium evolution in a self-interacting quantum field theory
invariant under space translation only by using a canonical approach based on
the recently developed Liouville-von Neumann formalism. The method is first
used to obtain the correlation functions both in and beyond the Hartree
approximation, for the quantum mechanical analog of the model. The
technique involves representing the Hamiltonian in a Fock basis of annihilation
and creation operators. By separating it into a solvable Gaussian part
involving quadratic terms and a perturbation of quartic terms, it is possible
to find the improved vacuum state to any desired order. The correlation
functions for the field theory are then investigated in the Hartree
approximation and those beyond the Hartree approximation are obtained by
finding the improved vacuum state corrected up to . These
correlation functions take into account next-to-leading and
next-to-next-to-leading order effects in the coupling constant. We also use the
Heisenberg formalism to obtain the time evolution equations for the equal-time,
connected correlation functions beyond the leading order. These equations are
derived by including the connected 4-point functions in the hierarchy. The
resulting coupled set of equations form a part of infinite hierarchy of coupled
equations relating the various connected n-point functions. The connection with
other approaches based on the path integral formalism is established and the
physical implications of the set of equations are discussed with particular
emphasis on thermalization.Comment: Revtex, 32 pages; substantial new material dealing with
non-equilibrium evolution beyond Hartree approx. based on the LvN formalism,
has been adde
The effect of spontaneous collapses on neutrino oscillations
We compute the effect of collapse models on neutrino oscillations. The effect
of the collapse is to modify the evolution of the `spatial' part of the wave
function, which indirectly amounts to a change on the flavor components. In
many respects, this phenomenon is similar to neutrino propagation through
matter. For the analysis we use the mass proportional CSL model, and perform
the calculation to second order perturbation theory. As we will show, the CSL
prediction is very small - mainly due to the very small mass of neutrinos - and
practically undetectable.Comment: 24 pages, RevTeX. Updated versio
Vacuum instability in external fields
We study particles creation in arbitrary space-time dimensions by external
electric fields, in particular, by fields, which are acting for a finite time.
The time and dimensional analysis of the vacuum instability is presented. It is
shown that the distributions of particles created by quasiconstant electric
fields can be written in a form which has a thermal character and seems to be
universal. Its application, for example, to the particles creation in external
constant gravitational field reproduces the Hawking temperature exactly.Comment: 36 pages, LaTe
A Grand Canonical Ensemble Approach to the Thermodynamic Properties of the Nucleon in the Quark-Gluon Coupling Model
In this paper, we put forward a way to study the nucleon's thermodynamic
properties such as its temperature, entropy and so on, without inputting any
free parameters by human hand, even the nucleon's mass and radius. First we use
the Lagrangian density of the quark gluon coupling fields to deduce the Dirac
Equation of the quarks confined in the gluon fields. By boundary conditions we
solve the wave functions and energy eigenvalues of the quarks, and thus get
energy-momentum tensor, nucleon mass, and density of states. Then we utilize a
hybrid grand canonical ensemble, to generate the temperature and chemical
potentials of quarks, antiquarks of three flovars by the four conservation laws
of the energy and the valence quark numbers, after which, all other
thermodynamic properties are known. The only seemed free paremeter, the nucleon
radius is finally determined by the grand potential minimal principle.Comment: 5 pages, LaTe
Chiral phase properties of finite size quark droplets in the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model
Chiral phase properties of finite size hadronic systems are investigated
within the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model. Finite size effects are taken into
account by making use of the multiple reflection expansion. We find that, for
droplets with relatively small baryon numbers, chiral symmetry restoration is
enhanced by the finite size effects. However the radius of the stable droplet
does not change much, as compared to that without the multiple reflection
expansion.Comment: RevTex4, 9 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.
New exact solution of Dirac-Coulomb equation with exact boundary condition
It usually writes the boundary condition of the wave equation in the Coulomb
field as a rough form without considering the size of the atomic nucleus. The
rough expression brings on that the solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation and
the Dirac equation with the Coulomb potential are divergent at the origin of
the coordinates, also the virtual energies, when the nuclear charges number Z >
137, meaning the original solutions do not satisfy the conditions for
determining solution. Any divergences of the wave functions also imply that the
probability density of the meson or the electron would rapidly increase when
they are closing to the atomic nucleus. What it predicts is not a truth that
the atom in ground state would rapidly collapse to the neutron-like. We
consider that the atomic nucleus has definite radius and write the exact
boundary condition for the hydrogen and hydrogen-like atom, then newly solve
the radial Dirac-Coulomb equation and obtain a new exact solution without any
mathematical and physical difficulties. Unexpectedly, the K value constructed
by Dirac is naturally written in the barrier width or the equivalent radius of
the atomic nucleus in solving the Dirac equation with the exact boundary
condition, and it is independent of the quantum energy. Without any divergent
wave function and the virtual energies, we obtain a new formula of the energy
levels that is different from the Dirac formula of the energy levels in the
Coulomb field.Comment: 12 pages,no figure
Correlações entre as características obtidas in vivo por ultra-som e as obtidas na carcaça de cordeiros terminados em confinamento
Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration
Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were
recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements from the first three years of
RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy,
yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse
momenta (p_T), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, non-statistical
fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high p_T. The results
are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state
of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be
described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.Comment: 510 authors, 127 pages text, 56 figures, 1 tables, LaTeX. Submitted
to Nuclear Physics A as a regular article; v3 has minor changes in response
to referee comments. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures
for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available
at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm
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