The order, shape and critical point for the quark-gluon plasma phase transition

The order, shape and critical point for the phase transition between the hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma are considered in a thermodynamical consistent approach. The hadronic phase is taken as Van der Waals gas of all the known hadronic mass spectrum particles $m_H\le 2.0$ GeV as well as Hagedorn bubbles which correspond hadronic states with mass spectrum $m_H> 2.0$ GeV. The density of states for Hagedorn bubbles is derived by calculating the microcanonical ensemble for a bag of quarks and gluons with specific internal color-flavor symmetry. The mixed-grand and microcanonical ensembles are derived for massless and massive flavors. We find Hagedorn bubbles are strongly suppressed in the dilute hadronic matter and they appear just below the line of the phase transition. The order of the phase transition depends on Hagedorn bubble's internal color-flavor structure and the volume fluctuation as well. On the other hand, the highly compressed hadronic matter undergoes a smooth phase transition from the gas of known mass spectrum hadrons to another one dominated by Hagedorn bubbles with specific internal color-flavor structure before the phase transition to quark-gluon plasma takes place at last. The phase transition is found a first order for the intermediate and large chemical potentials. The existence of the tri-critical point depends on the modification of the bubble's internal structure specified by a phenomenological parameter $\gamma\propto\mu_B$ in the medium.Comment: 69 pages, 10 figure

Fluctuations in statistical models

Proceedings of 4th International Workshop "Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement", July 9-13, 2007, Darmstadt, Germany: The multiplicity fluctuations of hadrons are studied within the statistical hadron-resonance gas model in the large volume limit. The role of quantum statistics and resonance decay effects are discussed. The microscopic correlator method is used to enforce conservation of three charges - baryon number, electric charge, and strangeness - in the canonical ensemble. In addition, in the micro-canonical ensemble energy conservation is included. An analytical method is used to account for resonance decays. The multiplicity distributions and the scaled variances for negatively and positively charged hadrons are calculated for the sets of thermodynamical parameters along the chemical freeze-out line of central Pb+Pb (Au+Au) collisions from SIS to LHC energies. Predictions obtained within different statistical ensembles are compared with the preliminary NA49 experimental results on central Pb+Pb collisions in the SPS energy range. The measured fluctuations are significantly narrower than the Poisson ones and clearly favor expectations for the micro-canonical ensemble. Thus, this is a first observation of the recently predicted suppression of the multiplicity fluctuations in relativistic gases in the thermodynamical limit due to conservation laws

Quark-Gluon Plasma Signatures in Nucleus--Nucleus Collisions at CERN SPS

Two signatures of the quark-gluon plasma -- strangeness `enhancement' and $J/\psi$ `suppression' -- in nucleus--nucleus collisions at the SPS energies are critically discussed.Comment: Invited Talk at Symposium on Fundamental Issues in Elementary Matter, In Honor and Memory of Michael Danos, Bad Honnef, Germany, 25-29 September 2000 (to be published in Heavy Ion Physics) Ref. [6] is correcte

Statistical Ensembles with Fluctuating Extensive Quantities

We suggest an extension of the standard concept of statistical ensembles. Namely, we introduce a class of ensembles with extensive quantities fluctuating according to an externally given distribution. As an example the influence of energy fluctuations on multiplicity fluctuations in limited segments of momentum space for a classical ultra-relativistic gas is considered.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Thermodynamical Consistency of Excluded Volume Hadron Gas Models

The new excluded volume hadron gas model by Singh et al. [1-7] is critically discussed. We demonstrate that in this model the results obtained from relations between thermodynamical quantities disagree with the corresponding results obtained by statistical ensemble averaging. Thus, the model does not satisfy the requirements of thermodynamical consistency

Research relative to high energy astrophysics

Various parameters which affect the design of the proposed large area modular array of reflectors (LAMAR) are considered, including thermal control, high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, pointing control, and mirror performance. The LAMAR instrument is to be a shuttle-launched X-ray observatory to carry out cosmic X-ray investigations. The capabilities of LAMAR are enumerated. Angular resolution performance of the mirror module prototype was measured to be 30 sec of ARC for 50% of the power. The LAMAR thermal pre-collimator design concepts and test configurations are discussed in detail