DOCSLIB.ORG

Structure and Decay in the QED Vacuum

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Structure and Decay in the QED Vacuum Structure and Decay in the QED Vacuum Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Labun, Lance Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 04/10/2021 14:30:11 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/203491 STRUCTURE AND DECAY IN THE QED VACUUM by Lance Andrew Labun A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2011 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dis- sertation prepared by Lance Andrew Labun entitled Structure and Decay in the QED Vacuum and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date: 16 November 2011 Johann Rafelski Date: 16 November 2011 Sumitendra Mazumdar Date: 16 November 2011 Michael Shupe Date: 16 November 2011 Shufang Su Date: 16 November 2011 Ubirajara van Kolck Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Date: 16 November 2011 Dissertation Director: Johann Rafelski 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Lance Andrew Labun 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Prof. Johann Rafelski, my mentor, has been a continuous source of ideas, energy and wisdom. The deep and broad foundation I now have in the scholarly pursuit of physics is a credit to his teaching. I am indebted to Prof. Keith Dienes for bringing me to Arizona and providing early guidance. I would like to thank Prof. Berndt Mueller for encouragement and insightful discussion over the past four years. I am very grateful to my dissertation committee who granted patience, under- standing and helpful advice in the completion of this dissertation. Many more have supported and contributed to the work constituting this dis- sertation. The limits of this page leave insufficient space to individually thank each professor, colleague and friend who has enriched my education over the course of the past four years, though even the smallest element is essential to the final composition presented here. 5 DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my parents, Lance C. Labun, Ph.D, and Patricia A. Labun, Ph.D. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES................................8 ABSTRACT....................................9 CHAPTER 1 Introduction .......................... 11 1.1 Strong Field QED: New Tools and Observations............ 11 1.2 Units and Notation............................ 13 1.3 External Fields and Vacuum Structure................. 13 1.4 The Euler-Heisenberg Effective Potential................ 15 1.5 Instability and Decay of the Electromagnetic Field........... 18 1.5.1 Vacuum Expectation of the Current............... 19 1.5.2 Imaginary Part of Veff ...................... 21 1.5.3 Decay of the Electric Field by Tunneling............ 22 CHAPTER 2 Key Findings .......................... 26 2.1 Energy-Momentum Tensor of Nonlinear Electromagnetism...... 26 2.1.1 4-Momentum and Mass...................... 27 2.1.2 Rest Frame of an Electromagnetic Field............ 29 2.2 Time Constant for Decay of Electromagnetic Field Mass....... 30 2.3 Energy of Particles from Laser-Induced Vacuum Decay........ 31 2.4 The Energy-momentum Trace...................... 34 κ 2.4.1 Fermi Condensate in Vacuum and Tκ .............. 36 κ 2.4.2 Astrophysical Effects of Tκ .................... 37 2.4.3 Modified Lorentz Force...................... 38 2.5 Comparison of Modifications of the Maxwell T µν ............ 40 2.6 Dark Energy due to a Metastable Vacuum State............ 42 2.7 Summary and Conclusions........................ 43 REFERENCES................................... 45 APPENDIX A Energy of the Dirac Vacuum.................. 48 APPENDIX B Vacuum Decay Time in Strong External Fields........ 50 APPENDIX C Dark Energy Simulacrum in Nonlinear Electrodynamics... 55 APPENDIX D QED Energy-momentum Trace as a Force in Astrophysics.. 72 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS { Continued APPENDIX E Strong Field Physics: Probing Critical Acceleration and Inertia with Laser Pulses and Quark-Gluon Plasma............. 79 APPENDIX F Vacuum Structure and Dark Energy.............. 104 APPENDIX G Spectra of Particles from Laser-Induced Vacuum Decay.... 110 8 LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Photon-photon scattering........................ 11 1.2 Diagrammatic representation of the effective potential......... 16 1.3 Example diagrams not included in the effective potential....... 18 9 ABSTRACT This thesis is a guide to a selection of the author's published work that connect and contribute to understanding the vacuum of quantum electrodynamics in strong, prescribed electromagnetic fields. This theme is elaborated over the course of two chapters: The first chapter sets the context, defining the relevant objects and con- ditions of the study and reviewing established knowledge upon which this study builds. The second chapter organizes and explains important results appearing in the published work. The papers 1.(Labun and Rafelski, 2009) \Vacuum Decay Time in Strong External Fields" 2.(Labun and Rafelski, 2010a) \Dark Energy Simulacrum in Nonlinear Electro- dynamics" 3.(Labun and Rafelski, 2010b) \QED Energy-Momentum Trace as a Force in Astrophysics" 4.(Labun and Rafelski, 2010c) \Strong Field Physics: Probing Critical Acceler- ation and Inertia with Laser Pulses and Quark-Gluon Plasma" 5.(Labun and Rafelski, 2010d) \Vacuum Structure and Dark Energy" 6.(Labun and Rafelski, 2011) \Spectra of Particles from Laser-Induced Vacuum Decay" are presented in their published format as appendices. Related literature is cited throughout the body where it directly supports the content of this overview; more extensive references are found within the attached papers. This study begins with the first non-perturbative result in quantum electro- dynamics, a result obtained by Heisenberg and Euler(1936) for the energy of a 10 zero-particle state in a prescribed, long-wavelength electromagnetic field. The re- sulting Euler-Heisenberg effective potential generates a nonlinear theory of electro- magnetism and exhibits the ability of the electrical fields to decay into electron- positron pairs. Context for phenomena arising from the Euler-Heisenberg effective potential is established by considering the energy-momentum tensor of a general nonlinear electromagnetic theory. The mass of a field configuration is defined, and I discuss two of its consequences pertinent to efforts to observe vacuum decay. I de- velop a method for non-perturbative evaluation of a trace component of the energy- momentum tensor and discuss its significance and consequences. I study the effect of the energy-momentum trace as part of a Euler-Heisenberg-generated modification to the Lorentz force. Modifications of the energy-momentum tensor from the Maxwell theory are evaluated numerically and compared to those arising from Born-Infeld electromagnetism and the Euler-Heisenberg effective potential for a scalar electron. Finally, I explore how this study guides investigation into how vacuum structure can generate the cosmological dark energy. 11 CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Strong Field QED: New Tools and Observations Quantum electrodynamics (QED) exhibits rich dynamics even in the state empty of real electrons or positrons, the vacuum. An electromagnetic field excites virtual electron-positron pairs, and this polarization of the vacuum leads to an effective interaction permitting the scattering of photons. Shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1.1 for two incident photons, the interaction potential was computed in the low photon- energy limit by Euler and Kockel(1935). In electric fields where the potential difference exceeds the rest mass of a pair 2mc2, the electron and positron can become real particles, as recognized by Sauter(1931). photon e− photon e+ Figure 1.1: Two-photon scattering mediated by a virtual electron-positron pair fluctuation in the vacuum. The photon scattering and pair-creation processes are complementary aspects of polarization of the electron-positron pair fluctuations by the external electro- magnetic field. Considering the exactly-solvable case of a constant prescribed field, Heisenberg and Euler(1936) unified these aspects in a non-perturbative effective potential for the electromagnetic field, which incorporates all quantum
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Tale of the Hagedorn Temperature
    Chapter 6 The Tale of the Hagedorn Temperature Johann Rafelski and Torleif Ericson Please note the Erratum to this chapter at the end of the book Abstract We recall the context and impact of Rolf Hagedorn’s discovery of limiting temperature, in effect a melting point of hadrons, and its influence on the physics of strong interactions. 6.1 Particle Production Collisions of particles at very high energies generally result in the production of many secondary particles. When first observed in cosmic-ray interactions, this effect was unexpected for almost everyone,1 but it led to the idea of applying the wide body of knowledge of statistical thermodynamics to multiparticle production processes. Prominent physicists such as Enrico Fermi, Lev Landau, and Isaak Pomeranchuk made pioneering contributions to this approach, but because difficulties soon arose this work did not initially become the mainstream for the study of particle production. However, it was natural for Rolf Hagedorn to turn to the problem. Hagedorn had an unusually diverse educational and research background, which included thermal, solid-state, particle, and nuclear physics. His initial work on statistical particle production led to his prediction, in the 1960s, of particle yields at the highest accelerator energies at the time at CERN’s proton synchrotron. Though there were few clues on how to proceed, he began by making the most of the ‘fireball’ concept, which was then supported by cosmic-ray studies. In this approach, all the energy of the collision was regarded as being contained within a small space- time volume from which particles radiated, as in a burning fireball.
    [Show full text]
  • Strangeness and the Discovery of Quark Gluon
    STRANGENESS AND THE DISCOVERY OF QUARK GLUON PLASMA Bloomington, November 30, 2004 Decon¯nement of quarks and gluons into a plasma (QGP) at high temperature is a predicted paradigm shifting feature of strong interactions. The production of strange particles in relativistic heavy ion collisions at CERN and BNL con¯rms that a new phase of matter with the expected properties is being formed. I will survey the key theoretical predictions and the related experimental results. Time permitting, I will discuss how the newly gained knowledge leads to the study of the hot nearly matter-antimatter symmetric post quark-gluon Universe. +50% of content is for STUDENTS. BONUS material after 50 transparencies: THE QUARK UNIVERSE Supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, DE-FG02-04ER41318 Johann Rafelski Department of Physics University of Arizona TUCSON, AZ, USA 1 J. Rafelski, Arizona STRANGENESS AND THE DISCOVERY OF QUARK GLUON PLASMA Bloomington, November 30, 2004,page 2 EXPERIMENTAL HEAVY ION PROGRAM | LHC CERN: LHC opens after 2007 and SPS resumes after 2009 J. Rafelski, Arizona STRANGENESS AND THE DISCOVERY OF QUARK GLUON PLASMA Bloomington, November 30, 2004,page 3 ...and at BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider: RHIC J. Rafelski, Arizona STRANGENESS AND THE DISCOVERY OF QUARK GLUON PLASMA Bloomington, November 30, 2004,page 4 BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY 12:00 o’clock PHOBOS BRAHMS 10:00 o’clock 2:00 o’clock RHIC PHENIX 8:00 o’clock STAR 4:00 o’clock 6:00 o’clock Design Parameters: Beam Energy = 100 GeV/u U-line 9 GeV/u No.
    [Show full text]
  • A4 Standard Format Template
    2008 SCHOOL OF PHYSICS Annual Report 4 www.physics.unimelb.edu.au contents/ the university of melbourne 6 the faculty of science 8 THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICS 9 HEAD’S REPORT 10 EXECUTIVE MANAGER’S REPORT 10 SCHOOL GOVERANCE 11 STAFF 12 VISITORS 18 RESEARCH FUNDING 20 RESEARCH SEMINAR SERIES 23 SCHOOL-HOSTED CONFERENCES 28 POSTGRADUATES IN PROGRESS 30 THESES COMPLETIONS 34 GROUP REPORT & PUBLICATIONS - Astrophysics 35 - Experimental Particle Physics (EPP) 39 - Micro-Analytical Research Centre (MARC) 45 Quantum Communications Victoria (QCV) 50 - Optics 51 ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS) 54 - Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics (TCMP) 56 - Theoretical Particle Physics (TPP) 60 postgraduate physics student society (PPSS) 63 priZes & awards 64 outreach programs 66 subJects offered 69 alumni & friends 70 media 72 recruiting organisations 74 more information 75 www.physics.unimelb.edu.au 5 The University of Melbourne The university OF the Melbourne Model undergraduate and graduate education have continued to be a central focus of Melbourne thought and investment at the University. Established in 1853, the University of Melbourne The final strand – knowledge transfer – has long is a public-spirited institution that makes distinctive been practised but not always acknowledged at contributions to society in research, teaching and the University. A commitment to projects based knowledge transfer. on engagement, exchange and partnership with Melbourne’s teaching excellence has been wider constituencies has become a familiar part rewarded two years in a row by grants from of University aspirations. Knowledge transfer is the Commonwealth Government’s Learning about direct, two-way interactions between the and Teaching Performance Fund for Australian University and its external communities, which universities that demonstrate excellence in involve the development, exchange and application undergraduate teaching and learning.
    [Show full text]
  • Birth of the Hagedorn Temperature
    CERN Courier December 2014 CERN Courier December 2014 Bookshelf Inside Story about CERN and its latest “biggest” appeal to anyone who has an interest discovery – the Higgs boson. According in understanding the broader world to the preface, this one sets out to tell the view of human endeavour that includes story from a different perspective, by religious faith and science. I hope that it putting at its centre the modern scientists inspires people to take a more open and who are exploring this terra incognita. wide-ranging view of human life. Faithful Birth of the Hagedorn temperature Interviews with a dozen scientists working to Science should be on the bookshelf of at CERN, ranging from the director-general, anyone who is interested to explore this Rolf Heuer, to physicists working on the more comprehensive human experience. experiments, form the main part of the ● Emmanuel Tsesmelis, CERN. The statistical bootstrap thermal physics – not unusual in the particle book. These interviews are interspersed and nuclear context in the early 1970s. He with explanatory texts, and there are also a Books received model and the discovery of remembered our discussions in Frankfurt number of factual chapters about the history a few years later, resuming my education at of physics and especially particle physics, What Makes a Champion! Over Fifty quark–gluon plasma. CERN as if we had never been interrupted. from Galileo to Einstein. Extraordinary Individuals Share Their Looking back to those long sessions in the Does the book achieve what it sets out to Insights winter of 1977/1978, I see a blackboard full do, namely to give basic research a human By Allan Snyder (ed.) of clean, exact equations – and his sign not to face? Yes and no.
    [Show full text]
  • Before Matter As We Know It Emerged, the Universe Was Filled with The
    Cambridge University Press 0521385369 - Hadrons and Quark–Gluon Plasma Jean Letessier and Johann Rafelski Frontmatter More information HADRONS AND QUARK–GLUON PLASMA Before matter as we know it emerged, the universe was filled with the primordial state of hadronic matter called quark–gluon plasma. This hot soup of quarks and gluons is effectively an inescapable consequence of our current knowledge about the fundamental hadronic interactions: quantum chromodynamics. This book covers the ongoing search to verify the prediction experimentally and discusses the physical properties of this novel form of matter. It provides an accessible introduction to the recent developments in this interdisciplinary field, covering the basics as well as more advanced material. It begins with an overview of the subject, followed by discussion of experimental methods and results. The second half of the book covers hadronic matter in confined and deconfined form, and strangeness as a signature of the quark–gluon phase. A firm background in quantum mechanics, special relativity, and statistical physics is assumed, as well as some familiarity with particle and nuclear physics. However, the essential introductory elements from these fields are presented as needed. This text is suitable as an introduction for graduate students, as well as pro- viding a valuable reference for researchers already working in this and related fields. JEAN LETESSIER has been CNRS researcher at the University of Paris since 1978. Prior to that he worked at the Institut de Physique Nucleaire, Orsay, where he wrote his thesis on hyperon–nucleon interaction in 1970, under the direction of Professor R. Vinh Mau, and was a teaching assistant at the University of Bordeaux.
    [Show full text]
  • Strangeness, Equilibration, Hadronization
    CERN-TH/2001-364 Strangeness, Equilibration, Hadronization Johann Rafelski Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 and CERN-Theory Division, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland Abstract. In these remarks I explain the motivation which leads us to consider chemical nonequilibrium processes in flavor equilibration and in statistical hadroniziation of quark–gluon plasma (QGP). Statistical hadronization allowing for chemical non-equilibrium is introduced. The reesults of fits to RHIC-130 results, including multistrange hadrons, are shown to agree only with the model of an exploding QGP fireball. Submitted to: J. Phys. G: Nucl. Phys. Proceedings of Strange Quark Matter 2001, Frankfurt 1. Historical background The topic we discuss today, production of hadrons in statistical hadronization in high energy heavy ion collisions, has been the subject of several diploma and doctor thesis at the University Frankfurt in late 70’s and early 80’s. At the time, in a field void of any experimental result, I competed with a Hungarian hadrochemistry group lead by the chair of this discussion session, Prof. J. Zimanyi. We both passed through natural evolution stages. We were at first considering the equilibrium particle abundances expected to arise when Mr. EquilibriX holds in his hand hot and dense hadron matter fireball, which evaporated these particles. This work was followed by the development of kinetic theory of strangeness production, which was precipitated by the finding of the Budapest group, that light quark interactions were not fast enough to produce strangeness abundantly. We learned to appreciate that the yields of newly produced quarks were not necessarily given by the chemical equilibrium statistical model.
    [Show full text]
  • 2013 Annual Report the American Physical Society Strives To
    AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY TM 2013 ANNUAL REPORT THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY STRIVES TO Be the leading voice for physics and an authoritative source of physics information for the advancement of physics and the benefit of humanity Collaborate with national scientific societies for the advancement of science, science education, and the science community Cooperate with international physics societies to promote physics, to support physicists worldwide, and to foster international collaboration Have an active, engaged, and diverse membership, and support the activities of its units and members TM © 2014 American Physical Society Cover image: Sine waves. Illustration by Alan Stonebraker. FROM THE PRESIDENT his was a good year for physics, the APS, and its members. The Higgs continued to grab headlines, Twith the awarding of the Nobel Prize to François Englert and Peter Higgs. Their award-winning papers on the Higgs mechanism were published in Physical Review Letters (where else?). The DPF organized a “Higgs Fest” on Capitol Hill, attended by 10 members of Congress and several hundred others, to celebrate the Higgs and the U.S. role in discovering it. In this, the hundredth year of our publishing the Physical Review, the APS prepared to add a new jour- nal to the family—Physical Review Applied. Our newest journal will publish the highest-quality papers at the intersection of physics and engineering, in areas including materials, surface and interface science; device physics; condensed matter physics and optics. 2013 was a big year for APS global engagement. We had our first overseas Fellows receptions—in London and Tokyo—and the Executive Board held its annual retreat abroad, at the Kavli Royal Society International Centre at Chicheley Hall, just outside London.
    [Show full text]
  • Vacuum Stabilized by Anomalous Magnetic Moment
    PHYSICAL REVIEW D 98, 016006 (2018) Vacuum stabilized by anomalous magnetic moment Stefan Evans and Johann Rafelski Department of Physics, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA (Received 9 May 2018; published 10 July 2018) An analytical result for Euler-Heisenberg effective action, valid for electron spin g−factor jgj < 2, was extended to the domain jgj > 2 via discovered periodicity of the effective action. This allows for a simplified computation of vacuum instability modified by the electron’s measured g ¼ 2.002319. We find a strong suppression of vacuum decay into electron positron pairs when magnetic fields are dominant. The result is reminiscent of mass catalysis by magnetic fields. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.016006 I. INTRODUCTION The here presented results are a step towards under- We explore the effect of anomalous electron spin g-factor standing of nonperturbative QED vacuum structure in E ð 2 − 1Þ on vacuum instability in Euler Heisenberg (EH) effective ultrastrong fields at the scale EH= g= . Here we action [1–3]. In the wake of theoretical development of EH accommodate the nonperturbative character of modifica- ≠ 2 action, studies of the nonlinear QED vacuum have almost tions arising from g explicitly and quantify how for ≠ 2 always relied on an electron spin g-factor of exactly 2. a given value of g modifications of the instability of Since both real and imaginary parts of the effective action the EH effective action arise in presence of external fields. g ≠ 2 In order to complete QED vacuum structure study in are modified by an anomalous -factor, the rate of “ ” α ≃ 1 137 vacuum decay in strong fields by pair production is two loop order: second order in = but to all affected.
    [Show full text]
  • Particle Production and Deconfinement Threshold
    Particle Production and Deconfinement Threshold Johann Rafelski∗ University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA and Department für Physik der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Maier-Leibnitz-Laboratorium, Am Coulombwall 1, 85748 Garching, Germany E-mail: [email protected] Jean Letessier LPTHE, Université Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, F–75251 Cedex 05 We present a detailed analysis of the NA49 experimental particle yield results, and discuss the physical properties of the particle source. We explain in depth how our analysis differs from the work of other groups, what advance this implies in terms of our understanding, and what new physics about the deconfined particle source this allows us to recognize. We answer several fre- quently asked questions, presenting a transcript of a discussion regarding our data analysis. We show that the final NA49 data at 40, 80, 158 AGeV lead to a remarkably constant extensive ther- mal chemical-freeze-out properties of the fireball. We discuss briefly the importance of thermal hadronization pressure. arXiv:0901.2406v1 [hep-ph] 16 Jan 2009 8th Conference Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum September 1-6, 2008 Mainz. Germany ∗Speaker. c Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence. http://pos.sissa.it/ Particle Production and Deconfinement Threshold Johann Rafelski 1. Deconfinement and Hadron Production Enhanced production of strange hadrons, and of (strange) antibaryons is a signature of quark– gluon plasma (QGP) formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions [1]. We illustrate on left in figure 1 the two step mechanism of hadron production from quark–gluon matter: upon deconfinement thermal glue emerges from parton matter, thermal gluon fusion reactions produce quark pairs in mass range mi < 3T [2].
    [Show full text]
  • Near the Beginning. . . There Was Quark-Gluon Plasma Johann Rafelski Department of Physics, the University of ARIZONA, Tucson
    Near the beginning. there was Quark-Gluon Plasma Johann Rafelski Department of Physics, The University of ARIZONA, Tucson BNL Physics Colloquium, January 21, 2014 Journey in time through the universe from a visit to the quark-gluon plasma era: Matter surrounding us arose from the primordial phase of matter, Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). QGP was omni-present up to when the Universe was 13 microsec- onds old, just the time it takes for heavy ions to travel around the BNL-RHIC ring. As the universe expands and cools QGP hadronizes, forming abundant matter and antimatter. Only a nano-fraction surplus of nuclear matter sur- vives annihilation process. A dense electron-positron-photon-neutrino plasma remains. The description of neutrino chemical and kinetic freeze-out dynam- ics requires use of the methods we developed in study of hadron freeze-out in QGP hadronization. Electrons and positrons begin to annihilate nearly at the same time when neutrinos decouple. Electron-positron-annihilation process lasts through the big-bang nucleo-synthesis (BBN) period. In the background of free streaming dark matter and neutrino fluids the visible matter evolves till ion-electron recombination completes, and the Universe becomes transparent to free-steaming light we observe as the cosmic microwave background. 1 Jan Rafelski, ArizonaQGP: Journey in the Universe BNL January 21,2014 , page 2 The next hour is about • In depth look why we do relativistic heavy ion physics and: • Applying this to the understanding of the Quark-Hadron Universe • Applying non-equilibrium methods developed in RHI to other time epochs Past decade primary contributors: (former) students were (αβ’ic): Jeremey Birrell, Michael Fromerth, Inga Kuznetsowa, Lance Labun Michal Petran, Giorgio Torrieri supported by the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Quarks and Hadrons in the Primordial Universe, December 11, 2020
    Quarks and Hadrons in the Universe Johann Rafelski-Arizona December 11, 2020 1 / 33 Outline 1 Current understanding of the Universe: convergence of 1964-68 ideas Quarks + Higgs ! Standard Model of particle physics CMB discovered ! Big Bang Statistical Bootstrap TH ! Quark-Gluon Plasma 2 QGP in the Universe, in laboratory 3 Antimatter disappears, neutrinos free-stream, (BBN) . 4 Evolution of matter components in the Universe Quarks and Hadrons in the Universe Johann Rafelski-Arizona December 11, 2020 2 / 33 1964: Quarks + Higgs ! Standard Model Quarks and Hadrons in the Universe Johann Rafelski-Arizona December 11, 2020 3 / 33 1965: Microwave Background Penzias and Wilson Quarks and Hadrons in the Universe Johann Rafelski-Arizona December 11, 2020 4 / 33 Hagedorn Temperature October 1964 in press: Hagedorn Exponential Mass Spectrum 01/1965 Quarks and Hadrons in the Universe Johann Rafelski-Arizona December 11, 2020 5 / 33 1965-7 – Hagedorn’s singular Statistical Bootstrap accepted as ‘the’ initial singular hot Big-Bang theory Boiling Primordial Matter Even though no one was present when the Uni- verse was born, our current understanding of atomic, nuclear and elementary particle physics, constrained by the assumption that the Laws of Nature are unchanging, allows us to construct models with ever better and more accurate descriptions of the beginning.. We would have never understood these things if we had not advanced on Earth the fields of atomic and nuclear physics. To understand the great, we must descend into the very small. Quarks and
    [Show full text]
  • Strange Particles from Dense Hadronic Matter
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CERN Document Server Vol. 27 (1996) ACTA PHYSICA POLONICA B No 5 STRANGE PARTICLES FROM DENSE HADRONIC MATTER JOHANN RAFELSKI Department of Physics, University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 JEAN LETESSIER and AHMED TOUNSI LaboratoiredePhysiqueTh´eorique et Hautes Energies Universit´e Paris 7, Tour 24, 2 Pl. Jussieu, F-75251 Cedex 05, France (Received April 3, 1996) Abstract After a brief survey of the remarkable accomplishments of the cur- rent heavy ion collision experiments up to 200A GeV, we address in depth the role of strange particle production in the search for new phases of matter in these collisions. In particular, we show that the observed enhancement pattern of otherwise rarely produced multi- strange antibaryons can be consistently explained assuming color de- confinement in a localized, rapidly disintegrating hadronic source. We develop the theoretical description of this source, and in particular study QCD based processes of strangeness production in the decon- fined, thermal quark-gluon plasma phase, allowing for approach to chemical equilibrium and dynamical evolution. We also address ther- mal charm production. Using a rapid hadronization model we obtain final state particle yields, providing detailed theoretical predictions about strange particle spectra and yields as function of heavy ion energy. Our presentation is comprehensive and self-contained: we introduce in considerable detail the procedures used in data inter- pretation, discuss the particular importance of selected experimental results and show how they impact the theoretical developments. PACS numbers: 25.75.+r, 12.38.Mh, 24.85.+p (1037) 1038 J.
    [Show full text]