Can van Hove singularities be observed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions?

Based on general arguments, the in-medium quark propagator in a quark-gluon plasma leads to a quark dispersion relation consisting of two branches, of which one exhibits a minimum at some finite momentum. This results in a vanishing group velocity for collective quark modes. Important quantities such as the production rate of low mass lepton pairs and mesonic correlators depend inversely on this group velocity. Therefore these quantities, which follow from self energy diagrams containing a quark loop, are strongly affected by van Hove singularities (peaks and gaps). If these sharp structures could be observed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions it would reveal the physical picture of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) as a gas of quasiparticles.     

Phase motion of baryon resonances

A novel technique to probe the resonant structure of a partial-wave amplitude is proposed and applied to data on photoproduction of baryon resonances.     

Lower Bound for the Maximal Number of Facets of a 0/1 Polytope

Let $f_{n-1}(P)$ denote the number of facets of a polytope $P$ in ${\Bbb R}^n$. We show that there exist 0/1 polytopes $P$ with $$f_{n-1}(P)\geq\left (\frac{cn}{\log^2 n}\right )^{n/2},$$ where $c>0$ is an absolute constant. This improves earlier work of Barany and Por on a question of Fukuda and Ziegler.     

Baryon resonances and polarization transfer in hyperon photoproduction

A partial-wave analysis of data on photoproduction of hyperons including single and double polarization observables is presented. The large spin transfer probability reported by the CLAS Collaboration can be successfully described within an isobar partial-wave analysis.     

Magnetohydrodynamics and Plasma Cosmology

We study the linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations, both in the Newtonian and the general-relativistic limit, as regards a viscous magnetized fluid of finite conductivity and discuss instability criteria. In addition, we explore the excitation of cosmological perturbations in anisotropic spacetimes, in the presence of an ambient magnetic field. Acoustic, electromagnetic (e/m) and fast-magnetosonic modes, propagating normal to the magnetic field, can be excited, resulting in several implications of cosmological significance.     

Synthesis, optical properties, and growth mechanism of blue-emitting CdSe nanorods

Blue-emitting, cubic phase CdSe nanorods with an approximate diameter of 2.5 nm and lengths up to 12 nm have been synthesized at low temperature (100 degrees C) in a single surfactant using a single-source molecular precursor. Transmission electron microscopy and dynamic light scattering measurements indicate that the nanorods are formed from self-assembly of isotropic nanoclusters. Anisotropic growth in a single surfactant appears to be favored when growth occurs below the thermal decomposition temperature of the single-source precursor.     

Partial-wave decomposition of pion and photoproduction amplitudes

Partial-wave amplitudes for production and decay of baryon resonances are constructed in the framework of the operator expansion method. The approach is fully relativistically invariant and allows us to perform combined analyses of different reactions imposing directly analyticity and unitarity constraints. All formulas are given explicitly in the form used by the Crystal Barrel Collaboration in the (partly forthcoming) analyses of the electro-, photo- and pion-induced meson production data.     

Photoproduction of baryons decaying into Nπ and Nη

A combined analysis of photoproduction data on γp↦ πN, ηN was performed including the data on KΛ and KΣ. The data are interpreted in an isobar model with s-channel baryon resonances and π, ρ (ω), K, and K ^* exchange in the t-channel. Three baryon resonances have a substantial coupling to ηN, the well-known N(1535)S ₁₁, N(1720)P ₁₃, and N(2070)D ₁₅. The inclusion of data with open strangeness reveals evidence for further new resonances, N(1840)P ₁₁, N(1875)D ₁₃ and, with weaker evidence, for N(2170)D ₁₃.     

Quark dispersion relation and dilepton production in the quark-gluon plasma

Under very general assumptions we show that the quark dispersion relation in the quark-gluon plasma is given by two collective branches, of which one has a minimum at a nonvanishing momentum. This general feature of the quark dispersion relation leads to structures (van Hove singularities, gaps) in the low mass dilepton production rate, which might provide a unique signature for the quark-gluon plasma formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions.