117873141
Here's looking at you, fireball
Plasmas screen electromagnetic waves of frequency less than the plasma frequency, omega_p, with a skin depth, delta, specified by the electrical conductivity, sigma. Current estimates of the transport properties of the QCD plasma indicates that photons with energy less than 250--500 MeV would be screened with a skin depth of 2--4 fm. In a hadron gas, a little below T_c, screening occurs for much softer photons, of energy less than approximately 50 MeV, albeit with similar values of delta. If the QCD plasma is indeed strongly interacting, then it can be proven by merely looking at the brightness of a fireball from different angles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
119297909
High Scale Mixing Unification for Dirac Neutrinos
Starting with high scale mixing unification hypothesis, we investigate the renormalization group evolution of mixing parameters and masses for Dirac type neutrinos. Following this hypothesis, the PMNS mixing angles and phase are taken to be identical to the CKM ones at a unifying high scale. Then, they are evolved to a low scale using renormalization-group equations. The notable feature of this hypothesis is that renormalization group evolution with quasi-degenerate mass pattern can explain largeness of leptonic mixing angles even for Dirac neutrinos. The renormalization group evolution "naturally" results in a non-zero and small value of leptonic mixing angle $\theta_{13}$. One of the important predictions of this work is that the mixing angle $\theta_{23}$ is non-maximal and lies only in the second octant. We also derive constraints on the allowed parameter range for the SUSY breaking and unification scales for which this hypothesis works. The results are novel and can be tested by present and future experiments.
67811342
GRAPES-3¿A high-density air shower array for studies on the structure in the cosmic-ray energy spectrum near the knee
Abstract The change in the spectral index from about - 2.7 to - 3.1 at ∼ 3 × 10 15  eV in the all-particle energy spectrum of primary cosmic rays is very significant for learning about the nature of cosmic sources of ultra-high energy particles and their acceleration and propagation in the galactic disk. Any observation of a fine structure in the spectrum would be important for improving our understanding of these physical processes. The GRAPES-3 air shower array has been designed to achieve higher precision in determination of various shower parameters to enable observation of any fine structure in the energy spectrum, if it exists. The details of the shower detectors, shower trigger and the data acquisition system are presented here along with estimates of trigger efficiencies from Monte Carlo simulations for primary photons ( γ -rays) and several nuclei.
16765015
Microcanonical lattice gas model for nuclear disassembly
Microcanonical calculations are no more difficult to implement than canonical calculations in the lattice gas model. We report calculations for a few observables where we compare microcanonical model results with canonical model results.
118396346
Isoscaling, symmetry energy and thermodynamic models
Abstract The isoscaling parameter usually denoted by α depends upon both the symmetry energy coefficient and the isotopic contents of the dissociating systems. We compute α in theoretical models: first in a simple mean field model and then in thermodynamic models using both grand canonical and canonical ensembles. For finite systems the canonical ensemble is much more appropriate. The model values of α are compared with a much used standard formula. Next we turn to cases where in experiments, there are significant deviations from isoscaling. We show that in such cases, although the grand canonical model fails, the canonical model is capable of explaining the data.
118367187
A NOTE ON THE (ANTI-)BRST INVARIANT LAGRANGIAN DENSITIES FOR THE FREE ABELIAN 2-FORM GAUGE THEORY
We show that the previously known off-shell nilpotent and absolutely anticommuting (sb sab + sab sb = 0) Becchi–Rouet–Stora–Tyutin (BRST) transformations (sb) and anti-BRST transformations (sab) are the symmetry transformations of the appropriate Lagrangian densities of a four (3+1)-dimensional (4D) free Abelian 2-form gauge theory which do not explicitly incorporate a very specific constrained field condition through a Lagrange multiplier 4D vector field. The above condition, which is the analogue of the Curci–Ferrari restriction of the non-Abelian 1-form gauge theory, emerges from the Euler–Lagrange equations of motion of our present theory and ensures the absolute anticommutativity of the transformations s(a)b. Thus, the coupled Lagrangian densities, proposed in our present investigation, are aesthetically more appealing and more economical.