176 research outputs found
Whitening of the Quark-Gluon Plasma
Parton-parton collisions do not neutralize local color charges in the
quark-gluon plasma as they only redistribute the charges among momentum modes.
We discuss color diffusion and color conductivity as the processes responsible
for the neutralization of the plasma. For this purpose, we first compute the
conductivity and diffusion coefficients in the plasma that is significantly
colorful. Then, the time evolution of the color density due to the conductivity
and diffusion is studied. The conductivity is shown to be much more efficient
than the diffusion in neutralizing the plasma at the scale longer than the
screening length. Estimates of the characteristic time scales, which are based
on close to global equilibrium computations, suggest that first the plasma
becomes white and then the momentum degrees of freedom thermalize.Comment: 9 pages, revised, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Thermalization vs. Isotropization & Azimuthal Fluctuations
Hydrodynamic description requires a local thermodynamic equilibrium of the
system under study but an approximate hydrodynamic behaviour is already
manifested when a momentum distribution of liquid components is not of
equilibrium form but merely isotropic. While the process of equilibration is
relatively slow, the parton system becomes isotropic rather fast due to the
plasma instabilities. Azimuthal fluctuations observed in relativistic heavy-ion
collisions are argued to distinguish between a fully equilibrated and only
isotropic parton system produced in the collision early stage.Comment: 12 pages, presented at `Correlations and Fluctuations in Relativistic
Nuclear Collisions', MIT, April 05, minor correction
Fluctuating initial conditions in heavy-ion collisions from the Glauber approach
In the framework of the Glauber approach we analyze the shape parameters of
the early-formed system and their event-by-event fluctuations. We test a
variety of models: the conventional wounded nucleon model, a model admixing
binary collisions to the wounded nucleons, a model with hot spots, as well as
the hot-spot model where the deposition of energy occurs with a superimposed
probability distribution. We look in detail at the so-called participant
multipole moments, obtained by an averaging procedure where in each event the
system is translated to its center of mass and aligned with the major principal
axis of the ellipse of inertia. Quantitative comparisons indicate substantial
relative effects for eccentricity in variants of Glauber models. On the other
hand, the dependence of the scaled standard deviation of the participant
eccentricity on the chosen model is weak. For all models the values range from
about 0.5 for the central collisions to about 0.3-0.4 for peripheral
collisions, both for the gold-gold and copper-copper collisions. They are
dominated by statistics and change only by 10-15% from model to model. We
provide an approximate analytic expansion for the multipole moments and their
fluctuations given in terms of the fixed-axes moments. For central collisions
and in the absence of correlations it gives the simple formula for the scaled
standard deviation of the participant eccentricity: sqrt(4/pi-1). Similarly, we
obtain expansions for the radial profiles of the multipole distributions. We
investigate the relevance of the shape-fluctuation effects for jet quenching
and find them important only for very central events. Finally, we argue how
smooth hydro leads to the known result v_4 ~ v_2^2, and further to the
prediction Delta v_4/v_4 = 2 Delta v_2/v_2.Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures, additions include comparison to the CGC result
Local equilibrium of the quark-gluon plasma
Within kinetic theory, we look for local equilibrium configurations of the
quark-gluon plasma by maximizing the local entropy. We use the well-established
transport equations in the Vlasov limit, supplemented with the Waldmann-Snider
collision terms. Two different classes of local equilibrium solutions are
found. The first one corresponds to the configurations that comply with the
so-called collisional invariants. The second one is given by the distribution
functions that cancel the collision terms, representing the most probable
binary interactions with soft gluon exchange in the t-channel. The two sets of
solutions agree with each other if we go beyond these dominant processes and
take into account subleading quark-antiquark annihilation/creation and gluon
number non-conserving processes. The local equilibrium state appears to be
colorful, as the color charges are not locally neutralized. Properties of such
an equilibrium state are analyzed. In particular, the related hydrodynamic
equations of a colorful fluid are derived. Possible neutralization processes
are also briefly discussed.Comment: 20 pages; minor changes, to be published in Phys. Rev.
Quantum mechanics of baryogenesis
The cosmological baryon asymmetry can be explained as remnant of heavy
Majorana neutrino decays in the early universe. We study this
out-of-equilibrium process by means of Kadanoff-Baym equations which are solved
in a perturbative expansion. To leading order the problem is reduced to solving
a set of Boltzmann equations for distribution functions.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, typos corrected. To be published in Physics
Letter
Measuring charge fluctuations in high-energy nuclear collisions
Various measures of charge fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions are
discussed. Advantages of the Phi-measure are demonstrated and its relation to
other fluctuation measures is established. To get the relation, Phi is
expressed through the moments of multiplicity distribution. We study how the
measures act in the case of a `background' model which represents the classical
hadron gas in equilibrium. The model assumes statistical particle production
constrained by charge conservation. It also takes into account both the effect
of incomplete experimental apparatus acceptance and that of tracking
inefficiency. The model is shown to approximately agree with the PHENIX and
preliminary STAR data on the electric charge fluctuations. Finally,
`background-free' measures are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, numerous but minor changes, Phys. Rev. C in
prin
Entropy production by resonance decays
We investigate entropy production for an expanding system of particles and
resonances with isospin symmetry -- in our case pions and mesons --
within the framework of relativistic kinetic theory. A cascade code to simulate
the kinetic equations is developed and results for entropy production and
particle spectra are presented.Comment: 17 pages, 10 ps-figures included, only change: preprint number adde
Early dynamics of transversally thermalized matter
We argue that the idea that the parton system created in relativistic
heavy-ion collisions is formed in a state with transverse momenta close to
thermodynamic equilibrium and its subsequent dynamics at early times is
dominated by pure transverse hydrodynamics of the perfect fluid is compatible
with the data collected at RHIC. This scenario of early parton dynamics may
help to solve the problem of early equilibration.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Talk given by M. Chojnacki at Quark Matter 2008,
Jaipur, Indi
Measuring subdiffusion parameters
We propose a method to extract from experimental data the subdiffusion
parameter and subdiffusion coefficient which are defined by
means of the relation where
denotes a mean square displacement of a random walker starting from
at the initial time . The method exploits a membrane system where a
substance of interest is transported in a solvent from one vessel to another
across a thin membrane which plays here only an auxiliary role. Using such a
system, we experimentally study a diffusion of glucose and sucrose in a gel
solvent. We find a fully analytic solution of the fractional subdiffusion
equation with the initial and boundary conditions representing the system under
study. Confronting the experimental data with the derived formulas, we show a
subdiffusive character of the sugar transport in gel solvent. We precisely
determine the parameter , which is smaller than 1, and the subdiffusion
coefficient .Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, revised, to appear in Phys. Rev.
Boost Invariance and Multiplicity Dependence of the Charge Balance Functionin and Collisions at GeV/c
Boost invariance and multiplicity dependence of the charge balance function
are studied in \pi^{+}\rp and \rK^{+}\rp collisions at 250 GeV/ incident
beam momentum. Charge balance, as well as charge fluctuations, are found to be
boost invariant over the whole rapidity region, but both depend on the size of
the rapidity window. It is also found that the balance function becomes
narrower with increasing multiplicity, consistent with the narrowing of the
balance function when centrality and/or system size increase, as observed in
current relativistic heavy ion experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, Revte
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