How many phases meet at the chiral critical point?

We explore the phase diagram of NJL-type models near the chiral critical point allowing for phases with spatially inhomogeneous chiral condensates. In the chiral limit it turns out that the region in the mean-field phase diagram where those phases are energetically preferred very generically reaches out to the chiral critical point. The preferred inhomogeneous ground state in this vicinity possibly resembles a lattice of domain wall solitons. This raises the question of their relevance for the phase diagram of QCD.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor corrections, as published in PR

Influence of Hydrodynamic Interactions on the Kinetics of Colloidal Particle's Adsorption

The kinetics of irreversible adsorption of spherical particles onto a flat surface is theoretically studied. Previous models, in which hydrodynamic interactions were disregarded, predicted a power-law behavior $t^{-2/3}$ for the time dependence of the coverage of the surface near saturation. Experiments, however, are in agreement with a power-law behavior of the form $t^{-1/2}$. We outline that, when hydrodynamic interactions are considered, the assymptotic behavior is found to be compatible with the experimental results in a wide region near saturation.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett. (in press

Is a soft nuclear equation of state extracted from heavy-ion data incompatible with pulsar data?

We discuss the recent constraints on the nuclear equation of state from pulsar mass measurements and from subthreshold production of kaons in heavy-ion collisions. While recent pulsar data points towards a hard equation of state, the analysis of the heavy-ion data allows only for soft equations of state. We resolve the apparent contradiction by considering the different density regimes probed. We argue that future measurements of global properties of low-mass pulsars can serve as an excellent cross-check to heavy-ion data.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, contribution to the proceedings of the international conference on 'Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics III', Dresden, Germany, March 26-31, 2007, minor corrections to match published version, JPG in pres

Design of the Pluto Event Generator

We present the design of the simulation package Pluto, aimed at the study of hadronic interactions at SIS and FAIR energies. Its main mission is to offer a modular framework with an object-oriented structure, thereby making additions such as new particles, decays of resonances, new models up to modules for entire changes easily applicable. Overall consistency is ensured by a plugin- and distribution manager. Particular features are the support of a modular structure for physics process descriptions, and the possibility to access the particle stream for on-line modifications. Additional configuration and self-made classes can be attached by the user without re-compiling the package, which makes Pluto extremely configurable.Comment: Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physic

Design of the Pluto Event Generator

We present the design of the simulation package Pluto, aimed at the study of hadronic interactions at SIS and FAIR energies. Its main mission is to offer a modular framework with an object-oriented structure, thereby making additions such as new particles, decays of resonances, new models up to modules for entire changes easily applicable. Overall consistency is ensured by a plugin- and distribution manager. Particular features are the support of a modular structure for physics process descriptions, and the possibility to access the particle stream for on-line modifications. Additional configuration and self-made classes can be attached by the user without re-compiling the package, which makes Pluto extremely configurable.Comment: Presented at the 17th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physic

Adsorption of colloidal particles in the presence of external field

We present a new class of sequential adsorption models in which the adsorbing particles reach the surface following an inclined direction (shadow models). Capillary electrophoresis, adsorption in the presence of a shear or on an inclined substrate are physical manifestations of these models. Numerical simulations are carried out to show how the new adsorption mechanisms are responsible for the formation of more ordered adsorbed layers and have important implications in the kinetics, in particular modifying the jamming limit.Comment: LaTex file, 3 figures available upon request, to appear in Phys.Rev.Let