119125072
Phases and properties of quark matter
I review recent developments in finite temperature lattice QCD which are useful for the study of heavy-ion collisions. I pay particular attention to studies of the equation of state and the light they throw on conformal symmetry and the large Nc limit, and to the structure of the phase diagram for Nf = 2 + 1.
121387686
Hybrid Monte Carlo simulations of a two-dimensional gauge theory
Through a study of the dynamics of the two-dimensional U(1) pure gauge theory we find exponential slowing down in barrier penetration problems. We verify that the dynamical critical exponent in HMC can be tuned exactly to 1, and that normal and gauge fixed updates have equal cost.
119431013
A precise determination of T_c in QCD from scaling
Existing lattice data on the QCD phase transition are analyzed in renormalized perturbation theory. In quenched QCD it is found that T_c scales for lattices with only 3 time slices, and that T_c/Lambda_msbar=1.15 \pm 0.05. A preliminary estimate in QCD with two flavours of dynamical quarks shows that this ratio depends on the quark mass. For realistic quark masses we estimate T_c/Lambda_msbar=0.49 \pm 0.02. We also investigate the equation of state in quenched QCD at 1-loop order in renormalised perturbation theory.
123004962
Flavour degrees of freedom and the transition temperature in QCD
We study the finite temperature transition in QCD with four flavours of dynamical quarks. Our simulation is performed on an 8×16 3 lattice for quarks of mass ma=0.01. At the coupling β c =5.15, we find long-lived metastable states, as well as an abrupt change in the entropy density, suggesting a first order phase transition. Using presently available results from corresponding calculations of the hadron masses and the chiral condensate, this gives us a transition temperature T c ≅100 MeV, which is a factor two lower than the transition temperature found in quenched QCD.
122166973
The phase diagram of QCD: methods and logic of the comparison of experiments and theory
Abstract A small review of the phase diagram of QCD is presented. This is followed by a discussion of the conditions under which experimental data on the fluctuations of conserved quantities in heavy-ion collisions can be treated in the grand canonical ensemble. A robust method for detecting the presence of a nearby critical point in experiments is given. There is a short discussion of the need for non-Gaussian error analysis.
17443615
Lattice QCD for RHIC
I briefly introduce the methods by which lattice QCD predictions for RHIC are obtained. Next I deal with lattice determinations of strangeness production and event-to-event fluctuations of conserved quantities. I also present a new diagrammatic method for computing derivatives with respect to chemical potentials, and conclude with discussions of some tests of thermal perturbation theory which follow.
121092449
Probing dense nuclear matter in the laboratory
A 150‐meter‐long outdoor beam line wanders through eucalyptus trees down the 45‐meter slope connecting the SuperHILAC and the Bevatron at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. The SuperHILAC is a linear accelerator designed to accelerate heavy nuclei at high intensities to energies of up to 8 MeV/nucleon for the purpose of studying heavy and superheavy elements. The Bevatron is a weak focusing synchrotron born in 1954 with the mission of discovering the antiproton and exploring the riddle of the hadrons using beams of 6.2‐GeV protons. In 1974 these two machines were coupled to create the Bevalac, and with it a new field of research: relativistic heavy‐ion reactions.
16643882
Caloric curve for finite nuclei in Thomas-Fermi theory
In a finite temperature Thomas-Fermi theory with realistic nuclear interactions, we construct caloric curves for finite nuclei enclosed in a sphere of about 4 to 8 times the normal nuclear volume. The specific heat capacity ${C}_{v}$ shows a peaked structure that is possibly indicative of a liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclear systems.
119119867
Phase diagram for asymmetric nuclear matter in the multifragmentation model
We assume that, in equilibrium, nuclear matter at reduced density and moderate finite temperature breaks up into many fragments. Strong support for this assumption is provided by data accumulated from intermediate-energy heavy ion collisions. The breakup of hot and expanded nuclear matter according to the rules of equilibrium statistical mechanics is the multifragmentation model, which gives a first-order phase transition. This is studied in detail here. Phase-equilibrium lines for different degrees of asymmetry are computed.
121643346
Study on nuclear composition of cosmic rays around the knee utilizing muon multiplicity with GRAPES-3 experiment at Ooty
The composition and energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays (PCRs) are the only observables available at ultra-high energies to understand the nature of sources accelerating protons and other nuclei to 1000 TeV and beyond. These observables have been measured up to 1000 TeV, directly with detectors flown aboard balloons and satellites. The measurements at > 1000  TeV are obtained indirectly, from ground based observations of extensive air showers (EAS). However, their interpretation depends on rather inadequate knowledge of hadronic interactions at > 1000  TeV . The GRAPES-3 experiment has been designed to study the EAS at ∼ 30  TeV to provide a sizable overlap with the results from direct measurements, enabling selection of a suitable model of hadronic interactions. We present here the salient features of GRAPES-3 experiment and some details of muon multiplicity distributions (MMDs) observed with a 560 m2 muon detector as a function of shower size ( N e ) fro analysis of 560 days of data. A comparison of GRAPES-3 results with direct measurements over the energy region 100 – 1000 TeV is presented to show the suitability of hadronic interaction generator “SIBYLL” for the interpretation of EAS data. We presented the energy spectrum of five nuclear groups (H, He, N, Al and Fe) with good statistics for 100 – 10, 000 TeV.
207846098
Right sneutrinos in a supergravity model and the signals of a stable stop at the Large Hadron Collider