Some applications of thermal field theory to quark-gluon plasma

We briefly introduce the thermal field theory within imaginary time formalism, the hard thermal loop perturbation theory and some of its applications to the physics of the quark-gluon plasma, possibly created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions     

Lambdac enhancement from strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma

We propose the enhancement of Lambdac as a novel quark-gluon plasma signal in heavy ion collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Assuming a stable bound diquark state in the strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma near the critical temperature, we argue that the direct two-body collision between a c quark and a [ud] diquark would lead to an enhanced Lambdac production in comparison with the normal three-body collision among independent c, u, and d quarks. In the coalescence model, we find that the Lambdac/D yield ratio is enhanced substantially due to the diquark correlation.     

Photon production from baryon rich quark-gluon plasma

We study high energy photon production from a quark-gluon plasma at finite baryon density. We find that the photon production spectrum from the quark-gluon plasma maintained at constant temperature is only mildly dependent on the quark chemical potential.     

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma

Transport coefficients of quark-gluon plasma are discussed in the framework of relativistic kinetic theory with the relaxation time approximation of Boltzmann transport equation. The expressions for the coefficients of shear and volume viscosities and heat conductivity are derived assuming quark-gluon plasma to be a non-reactive mixture of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons. A lowest order in deviations from local thermal equilibrium and in plasma phase, lowest order in coupling constant are assumed. Entropy production due to irreversible processes is discussed.     

Physics of the quark-gluon plasma

Some features of the high temperature gluonic matter, such as the break-down of the fundamental group symmetry by the kinetic energy, the screening of test quarks by some unusual gluon states and the explanation of the absence of isolated quarks in the vacuum without the help of infinities are presented in this talk. Special attention is paid to separate the dynamical imput inferred from the numerical results of lattice gauge theory from the kinematics.     

Heavy hadrons in quark-gluon plasma

We use the nonperturbative quark-antiquark potential derived within the Field Correlator Method and the screened Coulomb potential to calculate binding energies and melting temperatures of heavy mesons and baryons in the deconfined phase of quark-gluon plasma.     

Charmonium states in quark-gluon plasma

We discuss how the spectral changes of quarkonia at T _c can reflect the ‘critical’ behaviour of QCD phase transition. Starting from the temperature dependencies of the energy density and pressure from lattice QCD calculation, we extract the temperature dependencies of the scalar and spin-2 gluon condensates near T _c. We also parametrize these changes into the electric and magnetic condensate near T _c. While the magnetic condensate hardly changes across T _c, we find that the electric condensate increases abruptly above T _c. Similar abrupt change is also seen in the scalar condensate. Using the QCD second-order Stark effect and QCD sum rules, we show that these sudden changes induce equally abrupt changes in the mass and width of J/ψ, both of which are larger than 100 MeV at slightly above T _c.      

Casimir effect on quark-gluon plasma

We study the Casimir effect on baryon-free quark-gluon plasma confined in a slab region. The energy and entropy densities of confined QGP at the transition temperature are 2～3 times as large as those of unconfined QGP when the width of the slab is about 1 fm.     

Strangeness production in quark-gluon plasma

In this paper it is shown that the strangeness production in quark-gluon plasma might not serve as an experimental signature for the formation of quark-gluon plasma. Our results are completely based on the computer simulation of the plasma. We have taken into account the full three-dimensional hydrodynamic expansion of the plasma.     

Current status of quark-gluon plasma signals

Compelling evidence for the creation of a new form of matter has been claimed to be found in Pb+Pb collisions at SPS. We discuss the uniqueness of often proposed experimental signatures for quark matter formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions. It is demonstrated that so far none of the proposed signals like J/? meson production/suppression, strangeness enhancement, dileptons, and directed flow unambiguously show that a phase of deconfined matter has been formed in SPS Pb+Pb collisions. We emphasize the need for systematic future measurements to search for simultaneous irregularities in the excitation functions of several observables in order to come close to pinning the properties of hot, dense QCD matter from data.     

The hadronisation of a quark-gluon plasma

We consider two scenarios for the expansion of a quark-gluon plasma. If the evolution is slow enough, the system can remain in equilibrium throughout its entire history up to the freeze-out of a hadron gas; for a very rapid expansion, it may break up into hadrons before or at the confinement transition, without ever going through an equilibrium hadron phase. We compare hadron production rates in the two approaches and show that for a hadronisation temperatureT?200 MeV and baryonic chemical potential μ _B ?500 MeV, their predictions essentially coincide. Present data on strange particle production lead to values in this range and hence cannot provide a distinction between the two scenarios. Pion, nucleon and non-strange meson production seem to require a considerably lower freeze-out temperature and baryonic chemical potential. In the hadron gas picture, this is in accord with the difference in mean free path of the different hadrons in the medium; it suggests a sequential freeze-out, in which strange hadrons stop interacting earlier than non-strange hadrons. In the quark-gluon plasma break-up, the hadronic final state fails to provide the high entropy per baryon observed in non-strange hadron production. The break-up moreover leads to a decrease of the entropy per baryon; hence it must be conceptually modified before it can be considered as a viable hadronisation mechanism.