Purely perturbative Boltzmann equation for hot non-Abelian gauge theories

In the perturbation theory, trasnport phenomena in hot non-Abelian gauge theories like QCD are often plagued with infrared singularities or nonperturbative effects. We show, in the context of the Kadanoff & Baym formalism, that there are certain nonequilibrium processes which are free from such difficulties. For these processes, due to an interplay between the macroscopic and microscopic physics, characteristic time scale (the mesoscale) naturally enters as an infrared cutoff and purely perturbative description by the Boltzmann equation is valid.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, to appear in Physical Review

Leakage Effect on J/psi Pt Distributions in Different Centrality Bins for Pb-Pb Collisions at E/A=160 GeV

A transport approach including a leakage effect for J/psi's in the transverse phase space is used to calculate the ratios between the J/psi transverse momentum distributions in several centrality bins for Pb-Pb collisions at E/A = 160 GeV. From the comparison with the CERN-SPS data, where the centrality is characterized by the transverse energy Et, the leakage effect is extremely important in the region of high transverse momentum and high transverse energy, and both the threshold and the comover models can describe the ratio well for all centrality bins except the most central one (Et < 100 GeV), for which the comover model calculation is considerably better than the threshold one.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, REVTEX3.1, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Exact Calculation of Ring Diagrams and the Off-shell Effect on the Equation of State

The partition function with ring diagrams at finite temperature is exactly caluclated by using contour integrals in the complex energy plane. It contains a pole part with temperature and momentum dependent mass and a phase shift part induced by off-shell effect in hot medium. The thermodynamic potentials for $\phi^4$ and $\phi^3$ interactions are calculated and compared with the quasi-particle (pole) approximation. It is found that the off-shell effect on the equation of state is remarkable.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, refereces added, final version to appear in PR

The pressure of QCD at finite temperatures and chemical potentials

The perturbative expansion of the pressure of hot QCD is computed here to order g^6ln(g) in the presence of finite quark chemical potentials. In this process all two- and three-loop one-particle irreducible vacuum diagrams of the theory are evaluated at arbitrary T and mu, and these results are then used to analytically verify the outcome of an old order g^4 calculation of Freedman and McLerran for the zero-temperature pressure. The results for the pressure and the different quark number susceptibilities at high T are compared with recent lattice simulations showing excellent agreement especially for the chemical potential dependent part of the pressure.Comment: 35 pages, 6 figures; text revised, one figure replace

Heavy-quarks in the QGP: study of medium effects through euclidean propagators and spectral functions

The heavy-quark spectral function in a hot plasma is reconstructed from the corresponding euclidean propagator. The latter is evaluated through a path-integral simulation. A weak-coupling calculation is also performed, allowing to interpret the qualitative behavior of the spectral function in terms of quite general physical processes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennesse

Renormalization Group Summation and the Free Energy of Hot QCD

Using an approach developed in the context of zero-temperature QCD to systematically sum higher order effects whose form is fixed by the renormalization group equation, we sum to all orders the leading log (LL) and next-to-leading log (NLL) contributions to the thermodynamic free energy in hot QCD. While the result varies considerably less with changes in the renormalization scale than does the purely perturbative result, a novel ambiguity arises which reflects the strong scheme dependence of thermal perturbation theory.Comment: 7 pages REVTEX4, 2 figures; v2: typos correcte

Results from the 4PI Effective Action in 2- and 3-dimensions

We consider a symmetric scalar theory with quartic coupling and solve the equations of motion from the 4PI effective action in 2- and 3-dimensions using an iterative numerical lattice method. For coupling less than 10 (in dimensionless units) good convergence is obtained in less than 10 iterations. We use lattice size up to 16 in 2-dimensions and 10 in 3-dimensions and demonstrate the convergence of the results with increasing lattice size. The self-consistent solutions for the 2-point and 4-point functions agree well with the perturbative ones when the coupling is small and deviate when the coupling is large.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; v5: added numerical calculations in 3D; version accepted for publication in EPJ

Dynamics of a Disoriented Chiral Condensate

We use the linear $\sigma$ model to analyse the dynamics of a disoriented chiral condensate. For idealized boundary conditions appropriate to high energy collisions, the problem can be reduced to a one dimensional one. The evolution of the chiral state is then that of a simple dynamical system and can be studied analytically.Comment: 14 pages Latex, LPTHE Orsay 94/18 , SPhT T94/01

Solution to the 3-loop Φ\Phi-derivable Approximation for Scalar Thermodynamics

We solve the 3-loop $\Phi$-derivable approximation to the thermodynamics of the massless $\phi^4$ field theory by reducing it to a 1-parameter variational problem. The thermodynamic potential is expanded in powers of $g^2$ and $m/T$, where $g$ is the coupling constant, $m$ is a variational mass parameter, and $T$ is the temperature. There are ultraviolet divergences beginning at 6th order in $g$ that cannot be removed by renormalization. However the finite thermodynamic potential obtained by truncating after terms of 5th order in $g$ and $m/T$ defines a stable approximation to the thermodynamic functions.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Hard gluon damping in hot QCD

The gluon collisional width in hot QCD plasmas is discussed with emphasis on temperatures near $T_c$, where the coupling is large. Considering its effect on the entropy, which is known from lattice calculations, it is argued that the width, which in the perturbative limit is given by $\gamma \sim g^2 \ln(1/g) T$, should be sizeable at intermediate temperatures but has to be small close to $T_c$. Implications of these results for several phenomenologically relevant quantities, such as the energy loss of hard jets, are pointed out.Comment: uses RevTex and graphic