119363590
On the critical end point of QCD
We investigate the critical end point of QCD with two flavours of light dynamical quarks at finite lattice cutoff a=1/4T using a Taylor expansion of the baryon number susceptibility. We find a strong volume dependence of its radius of convergence. In the large volume limit we obtain {mu}{sub B}/T{approx_equal}1.1 as the radius of convergence at T/T{sub c}{approx_equal}0.95 where T{sub c} is the crossover temperature at zero chemical potential. Since this estimate is a lower bound on the critical end point of QCD, the above small value of {mu} may place it in the range of observability in energy scans at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC)
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.
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.
55020997
Measurement of the radial density gradient of cosmic ray in the heliosphere by the GRAPES-3 experiment
Abstract A radial anisotropy in the flux of cosmic rays in heliosphere was theoretically predicted by Parker and others within the framework of the diffusion–convection mechanism. The solar wind is responsible for sweeping out the galactic cosmic rays, creating a radial density gradient within the heliosphere. This gradient coupled with the interplanetary magnetic field induces a flow of charged particles perpendicular to the ecliptic plane which was measured and correctly explained by Swinson, and is hereafter referred as ‘Swinson flow’. The large area GRAPES-3 tracking muon telescope offers a powerful probe to measure the Swinson flow and the underlying radial density gradient of the galactic cosmic rays at a relatively high rigidity of ∼100 GV. The GRAPES-3 data collected over a period of six years (2000–2005) were analyzed and the amplitude of the Swinson flow was estimated to be (0.0644 ± 0.0008)% of cosmic ray flux which was an ∼80 σ effect. The phase of the maximum flow was at a sidereal time of (17.70 ± 0.05) h which was 18 min earlier than the expected value of 18 h. This small 18 min phase difference had a significance of ∼6 σ indicating the inherent precision of the GRAPES-3 measurement. The radial density gradient of the galactic cosmic rays at a median rigidity of 77 GV was found to be 0.65% AU −1 .
118691839
Model for hypernucleus production in heavy ion collisions
We estimate the production cross sections of hypernuclei in projectile-like fragments (PLFs) in heavy ion collisions. The discussed scenario for the formation cross section of a LAMBDA hypernucleus is (a) LAMBDA particles are produced in the participant region but have a considerable rapidity spread and (b) LAMBDA with rapidity close to that of the PLF and total momentum (in the rest system of the PLF) up to Fermi motion can then be trapped and produce hypernuclei. Process (a) is considered here within the heavy ion jet interaction generator (HIJING/BB) model, and process (b) in the canonical thermodynamic model (CTM). We estimate the production cross sections for a hypernucleus {sub L}AMBDA{sup A}{sub F}Z where Z=1, 2, 3, and 4 for C + C at total nucleon-nucleon center of mass (c.m.) energy sq root(s{sub NN})=3.7 GeV, and for Ne + Ne and Ar + Ar collisions at sq root(s{sub NN})=5.0 GeV. By taking into account explicitly the impact parameter dependence of the colliding systems, it is found that the cross section is different from that predicted by the coalescence model, and large discrepancy is obtained for {sub L}AMBDA{sup 6}He and {sub L}AMBDA{sup 9}Be hypernuclei.
14808043
Dynamical growth of the hadron bubbles during the quark hadron phase transition
The rate of dynamical growth of the hadron bubbles in a supercooled baryon free quark-gluon plasma is evaluated by solving the equations of relativistic fluid dynamics in all regions. For a nonviscous plasma, this dynamical growth rate is found to depend only on the range of correlation $\ensuremath{\xi}$ of order parameter fluctuation, and the radius R of the critical hadron bubble, the two length scales relevant for the description of the critical phenomena. Further, it is shown that the dynamical prefactor acquires an additive component when the medium becomes viscous. Interestingly, under certain reasonable assumptions for the velocity of the sound in the medium around the saddle configuration, the viscous and the nonviscous parts of the prefactor are found to be similiar to the results obtained by Csernai and Kapusta and Ruggeri and Friedman (for the case of zero viscosity), respectively.
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.
15293327
Liquid-Gas Phase Transition in Nuclear Multifragmentation
Heavy-ion collisions allow one to pump energy into a nuclear system. In central collisions of equal size nuclei one can also create a significant amount of compression using high energy nuclear beams. The possibility of studying nuclei far from normal conditions raises the question: can we study phase transitions in nuclei similar, for instance, to the way, one can study phase transition in water? This is the subject of the present article.