Chasing electric flux in hot QCD

In this talk, I present the status of attempts to analyze the behavior of the so-called spatial 't Hooft loop, which can be taken as an order parameter for the deconfinement phase transition in pure SU(N) gauge theory. While lattice data show a strikingly universal scaling of extracted k–string tensions for various values of k and N, the analytic approach to these observables might need some refinement.     

NNLO hard-thermal-loop thermodynamics for QCD

We calculate the thermodynamic functions of a quark–gluon plasma for general Nc$N_c$ and Nf$N_f$ to three-loop order using hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory. At this order, all the ultraviolet divergences can be absorbed into renormalizations of the vacuum, the HTL mass parameters, and the strong coupling constant. We show that at three loops, the results for the pressure and trace anomaly are in very good agreement with recent lattice data down to temperatures T∼2Tc$T\sim 2T_c$.     

How to compute the thermal quarkonium spectral function from first principles?

In the limit of a high temperature T and a large quark-mass M, implying a small gauge coupling g, the heavy quark contribution to the spectral function of the electromagnetic current can be computed systematically in the weak-coupling expansion. We argue that the scale hierarchy relevant for addressing the disappearance (“melting”) of the resonance peak from the spectral function reads MT>g²M>gTg⁴M, and review how the heavy scales can be integrated out one-by-one, to construct a set of effective field theories describing the low-energy dynamics. The parametric behaviour of the melting temperature in the weak-coupling limit is specified.     

Conformal hydrodynamics in Minkowski and de Sitter spacetimes

We show how to generate non-trivial solutions to the conformally invariant, relativistic fluid dynamic equations by appealing to the Weyl covariance of the stress tensor. We use this technique to show that a recently studied solution of the relativistic conformally invariant Navier–Stokes equations in four-dimensional Minkowski space can be recast as a static flow in three-dimensional de Sitter space times a line. The simplicity of the de Sitter form of the flow enables us to consider several generalizations of it, including flows in other spacetime dimensions, second order viscous corrections, and linearized perturbations. We also construct the anti-de Sitter dual of the original four-dimensional flow. Finally, we discuss possible applications to nuclear physics.     

Anomalous transport processes in turbulent non-Abelian plasmas

Turbulent color fields, which can arise in the early and late stages of relativistic heavy ion collisions, may contribute significantly to the transport processes in the matter created in these collisions. We review the theory of these anomalous transport processes and discuss their possible phenomenology in the glasma and quasistationary expanding quark–gluon plasma.     

Collimation of energy in medium-modified QCD jets

The collimation of energy inside medium-modified jets is investigated in the leading logarithmic approximation of QCD. The Dokshitzer–Gribov–Lipatov–Altarelli–Parisi (DGLAP) evolution equations are slightly modified by introducing splitting functions enhanced in the infrared sector. As compared to elementary collisions in the vacuum, the angular distribution of the jet energy is found to broaden in QCD media.     

The chiral magnetic effect in hydrodynamical approach

We consider a model with two conserved currents, vector and axial, and two associated chemical potentials, μ   and μ₅${\mu }_5$. In the presence of external magnetic and electric fields the axial current is anomalous. Generalizing recent results and using thermodynamic relations alone we demonstrate that one can evaluate the chiral magnetic effect (ChME), that is the electric current flowing in the direction of the external magnetic field. In the linear in the chemical potential approximation the current is the same as for non-interacting fermions. In other words, there exists a hydrodynamic “non-renormalization theorem for the ChME”.     

Jets in QCD media: From color coherence to decoherence

We investigate soft gluon radiation off a quark-antiquark antenna in both color singlet and octet configurations traversing a dense medium. We demonstrate that, in both cases, multiple scatterings lead to a gradual decoherence of the antenna radiation as a function of the medium density. In particular, in the limit of a completely opaque medium, total decoherence is obtained, i.e., the quark and the antiquark radiate as independent emitters in vacuum, thus losing memory of their origin.     

Medium-modified average multiplicity and multiplicity fluctuations in jets

The energy evolution of average multiplicities and multiplicity fluctuations in jets produced in heavy-ion collisions is investigated from a toy QCD-inspired model. In this model, we use modified splitting functions accounting for medium-enhanced radiation of gluons by a fast parton which propagates through the quark–gluon plasma. The leading contribution of the standard production of soft hadrons is enhanced by a factor while next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections are suppressed by , where the parameter N _s >1 accounts for the induced soft gluons in the medium. Our results for such global observables are cross-checked and compared with their limits in the vacuum.     

Meson correlation functions in a QCD plasma

The temporal pseudoscalar meson correlation function in a QCD plasma is investigated in a range of temperatures exceeding T_c and yet of experimental interest. Only the flavour-singlet channel is considered and the imaginary time formalism is employed for the finite temperature calculations. The behaviour of the meson spectral function and of the temporal correlator is first studied in the HTL approximation, where one replaces the free thermal quark propagators with the HTL resummed ones. This procedure satisfactory describes the soft fermionic modes, but its application to the propagation of hard quarks is not reliable. An improved version of the so-called NLA scheme, which allows a better treatment of the hard fermionic modes, is then proposed. The impact of the improved NLA on the pseudoscalar temporal correlator is investigated.     

Instability of the plasma oscillations in finite temperature perturbative QCD

We use linear-response dielectric theory to show that the baryon-poor QCD plasma based on the perturbative vacuum is unstable, even at a high temperature. If deconfinement occurs in nuclear collisions or the early universe, it is not accompanied by the restoration of the perturbative vacuum.     

在量子色动力学中坡密子与核子的耦合

用强相互作用的基本理论量子色动力学推导出了坡密子与核子的耦合顶点, 得到了在绕射过程的研究中广泛应用的, 耦合强度,β=6.0GeV^—1,的经验的耦合顶点,βγ^μF¹(t). 本研究也清楚地表明了坡密子的胶子起源和胶子球的粒子性本质, 这是一个长期没有解决的问题. 结合我们以前的研究结果, 我们认为坡密子可能是一个在雷其轨迹,α(t)=1.08+0.20GeV^－2t,上, 具有量子数,I^G J^PC = 0⁺2⁺⁺,的雷其化的张量胶子球. 所以在雷其轨迹没有物理粒子的困难似乎得到了解决.     

Energy flow along the medium-induced parton cascade

We discuss the dynamics of parton cascades that develop in dense QCD matter, and contrast their properties with those of similar cascades of gluon radiation in vacuum. We argue that such cascades belong to two distinct classes that are characterized respectively by an increasing or a constant (or decreasing) branching rate along the cascade. In the former class, of which the BDMPS, medium-induced, cascade constitutes a typical example, it takes a finite time to transport a finite amount of energy to very soft quanta, while this time is essentially infinite in the latter case, to which the DGLAP cascade belongs. The medium induced cascade is accompanied by a constant flow of energy towards arbitrary soft modes, leading eventually to the accumulation of the initial energy of the leading particle at zero energy. It also exhibits scaling properties akin to wave turbulence. These properties do not show up in the cascade that develops in vacuum. There, the energy accumulates in the spectrum at smaller and smaller energy as the cascade develops, but the energy never flows all the way down to zero energy. Our analysis suggests that the way the energy is shared among the offsprings of a splitting gluon has little impact on the qualitative properties of the cascades, provided the kernel that governs the splittings is not too singular.     

On the multiplicity of hadrons in QCD jets

A three-loop calculation is presented for the jet multiplicity of produced slightly-off-shell gluons for a pure Yang-Mills theory. Planar and non-planar graphs are found to be equally important in an axial gauge. If the three-loop calculation is indicative of what happens at higher orders $\text{n}\text{(Q}{}^2\text{) ∝}\text{exp}\text{{[(}\text{2C}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>A</mtext>}}\text{πb}\text{) 1}\text{n}\text{Q}{}^2\text{]}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{}}$ where C_A = 3 and $\text{b =}\text{(33 ? 2n}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>f</mtext>}}\text{)}\text{12π}$ in QCD.     

Recent results on QCD thermodynamics: lattice QCD versus Hadron Resonance Gas model

We present our most recent investigations on the QCD cross-over transition temperatures with 2+1 staggered flavours and one-link stout improvement [JHEP 1009:073, 2010]. We extend our previous two studies [Phys. Lett. B643 (2006) 46, JHEP 0906:088 (2009)] by choosing even finer lattices (Nt=16$N_t=16$) and we work again with physical quark masses. All these results are confronted with the predictions of the Hadron Resonance Gas model and Chiral Perturbation Theory for temperatures below the transition region. Our results can be reproduced by using the physical spectrum in these analytic calculations. A comparison with the results of the hotQCD collaboration is also discussed.