15128823
The critical end point of quantum chromodynamics
We investigate the critical end point (CEP) of QCD with two flavours of light dynamical quarks at finite lattice cutoff a = ¼T using a Taylor expansion of the baryon number susceptibility. We find a strong volume dependence of the position of the critical end point. In the large volume limit we obtain T E /T c ≈ 0.95 and μ E B /T E ≈ 1.1, where Tc is the cross over temperature at zero chemical potential, and T E and μ E B are the temperature and the baryon chemical potential at the critical end point. The small value of μ E B places it in the range of observability in energy scans at the RHIC.
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.
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.
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.
17387019
Inhomogeneous nucleation in a quark-hadron phase transition
The effect of subcritical hadron bubbles on a first-order quark-hadron phase transition is studied. These subcritical hadron bubbles are created due to thermal fluctuations, and can introduce a finite amount of phase mixing (quark phase mixed with hadron phase) even at and above the critical temperature. For reasonable choices of surface tension and correlation length, as obtained from the lattice QCD calculations, we show that the amount of phase mixing at the critical temperature remains below the percolation threshold. Thus, as the system cools below the critical temperature, the transition proceeds through the nucleation of critical-size hadron bubbles from a metastable quark-gluon phase (QGP), within an inhomogeneous background populated by an equilibrium distribution of subcritical hadron bubbles. The inhomogeneity of the medium results in a substantial reduction of the nucleation barrier for critical bubbles. Using the corrected nucleation barrier, we estimate the amount of supercooling for different parameters controlling the phase transition, and briefly discuss its implications to cosmology and heavy-ion collisions.
18664179
Parametrizing yields of nuclear multifragmentation
We consider a model where, for a finite disintegrating system, yields of composites can be calculated to arbitrary accuracy. An analytic answer for yields is also known in the thermodynamic limit. In the range of temperature and density considered in this work, the model has a phase transition. This phase transition is first order. The analytic expression for yields of composites, in the thermodynamic limit, does not conform to the expression $ =a^{-\tau}f(a^{\sigma} (T-T_c))$ where, the usual identification would be that $T_c$ is the critical temperature and $\tau,\sigma$ are critical exponents. Nonetheless, for finite systems, we try to fit the yields with the above expression. A minimisation procedure is adopted to get the parameters $T_c,\tau$ and $\sigma$. While deviations from the formula are not negligible, one might believe that the deviations are consistent with the corrections attributable to finite particle number effects and might then conclude that one has deduced at least approximately the values of critical parameters. This exercise thus points to difficulties of trying to extract critical parameters from data on nuclear disintegration. An interesting result is that the value of $T_c$ deduced from the ``best'' fit is very close to the temperature at which the first order phase transition occurs in the model. The yields calculated in this model can also be fitted quite well by a parametrisation derived from a droplet model.
120261109
Predicting the number of deuterons from cascade calculations of relativistic heavy ion collisions
Formulas are presented which are useful for predicting the number of deuterons from cascade calculations of relativistic heavy ion collisions.
118503704
Two-Zero mass matrices and sterile neutrinos
A bstractRecent experimental data is indicative of the existence of sterile neutrinos. The minimal scheme that can account for the data and is consistent with cosmological observations is the 3+1 picture which consists of three predominantly active and one predominantly sterile neutrino with the fourth neutrino being heavier than the other three. Within this scheme there are two possibilities depending on whether the three light states obey normal or inverted hierarchy. In this paper we consider the two-zero textures of the low energy neutrino mass matrix in presence of one additional sterile neutrino. We find that among 45 possible two-zero textures for this case, 15 are consistent with all current observations. Remarkably, these correspond to the two-zero textures of a three active neutrino mass matrix. We discuss the mass spectrum and the parameter correlations that we find in the various textures. We also present the effective mass governing neutrinoless double beta decay as a function of the lowest mass.
122156675
Relativistic Hadron Model with Intrinsic Mass Splittings
A simple mechanism for the $\mathrm{SU}(3)$-symmetry breaking in strong interactions is introduced by using the formalism of the multispinor field equations, which avoids the use of physical quarks but has resemblance to the quark model. The resulting treatment leads to the Gell-Mann-Okubo mass formula for baryons, but not for mesons. It yields approximate values of -19.5\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} and 33\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{} for the $\ensuremath{\eta}\ensuremath{-}{\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ and $\ensuremath{\varphi}\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\omega}$ mixing angles, respectively, and also provides a reasonable explanation for the intermultiplet meson mass formula $m_{K}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\ensuremath{-}m_{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}=m_{{K}^{*}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}\ensuremath{-}m_{\ensuremath{\rho}}^{}{}_{}{}^{2}$.