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A. Tawfik

Publications and source records attributed to A. Tawfik.

54 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Cosmological Consequences of QCD Phase Transition(s) in Early Universe

We discuss the cosmological consequences of QCD phase transition(s) on the early universe. We argue that our recent knowledge about the transport properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) should throw additional lights on the actual time evolution of our universe. Understanding the nature of QCD phase transition(s), which can be studied in lattice gauge theory and verified in heavy ion experiments, provides an explanation for cosmological phenomenon stem from early universe.

hep-ph↗

Fluctuations of Particle Yield Ratios in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We study the dynamical fluctuations of various particle yield ratios at different incident energies. Assuming that the particle production yields in the hydronic final state are due to equilibrium chemical processes ($γ=1$), the experimental results available so far are compared with the hadron resonance gas model (HRG) taking into account the limited momentum acceptance in heavy-ion collisions experiments. Degenerated light and conserved strange quarks are presumed at all incident energies. At the SPS energies, the HRG with $γ=1$ provides a good description for the measured dynamical fluctuations in $(K^++K^-)/(π^++π^-)$. To reproduce the RHIC results, $γ$ should be larger than one. We also studied the dynamical fluctuations of $(p+\bar{p})/(π^++π^-)$. It is obvious that the energy-dependence of these dynamical fluctuations is non-monotonic.

hep-ph↗

Event-by-Event Fluctuations of Particle Ratios in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We study event-by-event dynamical fluctuations of various particle ratios at different energies. We assume that particle production in final state is due to chemical equilibrium processes. We compare results from resonance gas model with available experimental data. At SPS energies, the model can very well reproduce the experimentally measured fluctuations. We make predictions for dynamical fluctuations of strangeness and non-strangeness particle ratios. We found that the energy-dependence is non-monotonic. Furthermore, we found that fluctuations strongly depend on particle ratios.

hep-ph↗

Screening masses in thermal and dense medium

Screening masses of different hadronic states are studied in thermal and dense medium on lattice. It has been found that screening masses increase with the temperature. In deconfinement phase, chemical potential enhances the screening masses. We use the normalization with respect to lowest Matsubara frequency to characterize dissolving of hadronic bound states at high temperatures. It has been found that different hadronic states have different dissolving temperatures and their survivals are considerably improved at finite chemical potentials.

hep-lat↗

Black Box QGP

According to extensive ab initio calculations of lattice QCD, the very large energy density available in heavy-ion collisions at SPS and now at RHIC must be sufficient to generate quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a new state of matter in the form of plasma of free quarks and gluons. The new state of matter discovered at RHIC seems to be perfect fluid rather than free plasma. Its shear viscosity is assumed to be almost zero. In this work, I first considered the theoretical and phenomenological consequences of this discovery and finally asked questions about the nature of phase transition and properties of matter. It is important to answer these questions, otherwise QGP will remain a kind of black box; one sends a signal via new experiments or simulations or models and gets another one from it. I will show that some promising ideas have already been suggested a long time ago. I will also suggest a new phase diagram with separated deconfinement and freeze-out boundaries and a mixed state of thermal quark matter and bubbles of hadron gas.

hep-ph↗

Particle Ratios in Heavy-Ion Collisions

In framework of statistical models, different particle ratios at energies ranging from $3.5 $ to $200 $GeV are calculated. Assuming that the particle production takes place along the freeze-out curve, we study the sharp peak in $K^+/π^+$ ratio observed at SPS energy. We study the responsibility of non-equilibrium quark occupancy of phase space $γ_i$ for particle production. Allowing $γ_i$ to take values other than that of equilibrium, we got a very well description for $K^+/π^+$ ratio at all energies. Using the resulting parameter set, we analyzed the $K^-/π^-$, $Λ/π^+$ and \hbox{$Λ/<π>$} ratios. We found that the corresponding peaks all are located at the same value of energy, $\sqrt{s_{NN}}^{(c)}\simeq7.5 $GeV. At this energy, the entropy per particle is singular. The saddle-point in entropy per particle likely refers to critical phenomenon and change in the phase space.

hep-ph↗

In-Medium Modifications of Hadron Properties

The in-medium modifications of hadron properties are briefly discussed. We restrict the discussion to the lattice QCD calculations for the hadron masses, screening masses, decay constants and wave functions. We review the progress made so far and describe how to broaden its horizon.

hep-lat↗

A universal description for the freezeout parameters in heavy-ion collisions

It is shown that the freezeout parameters estimated in the heavy-ion collisions all are well described by a constant value of the entropy density $s$ divided by $T^3$. The value of $s/T^3$ has been taken from the lattice QCD simulations at zero baryo-chemical potential $μ_B$ and assumed to remain constant for finite $μ_B$. This implies that the hadronic matter in rest frame of produced system can be determined by constant degrees of freedom. Furthermore, this condition has been used to predict the freezeout parameters at low temperatures.

hep-ph↗

Quark-Antiquark Condensates in the Hadronic Phase

We use a hadron resonance gas model to calculate the quark-antiquark condensates for light (up and down) and strange quark flavors at finite temperatures and chemical potentials. At zero chemical potentials, we find that at the temperature where the light quark-antiquark condensates entirely vanish the strange quark-antiquark condensate still keeps a relatively large fraction of its value in the vacuum. This is in agreement with results obtained in lattice simulations and in chiral perturbation theory at finite temperature and zero chemical potentials. Furthermore, we find that this effect slowly disappears at larger baryon chemical potential. These results might have significant consequences for our understanding of QCD at finite temperatures and chemical potentials. Concretely, our results imply that there might be a domain of temperatures where chiral symmetry is restored for light quarks, but still broken for strange quark that persists at small chemical potentials. This might have practical consequences for heavy ion collision experiments.

hep-ph↗

Conditions driving chemical freeze-out

We propose the entropy density as the thermodynamic condition driving best the chemical freeze-out in heavy-ion collisions. Taking its value from lattice calculations at zero chemical potential, we find that it is excellent in reproducing the experimentally estimated freeze-out parameters. The two characteristic endpoints in the freeze-out diagram are reproduced as well.

hep-ph↗

The QCD phase diagram: A comparison of lattice and hadron resonance gas model calculations

We compare the lattice results on QCD phase diagram for two and three flavors with the hadron resonance gas model (HRGM) calculations. Lines of constant energy density $ε$ have been determined at different baryo-chemical potentials $μ_B$. For the strangeness chemical potentials $μ_S$, we use two models. In one model, we explicitly set $μ_S=0$ for all temperatures and baryo-chemical potentials. This assignment is used in lattice calculations. In the other model, $μ_S$ is calculated in dependence on $T$ and $μ_B$ according to the condition of vanishing strangeness. We also derive an analytical expression for the dependence of $T_c$ on $μ_B/T$ by applying Taylor expansion of $ε$. In both cases, we compare HRGM results on $T_c-μ_B$ diagram with the lattice calculations. The agreement is excellent, especially when the trigonometric function of $ε$ is truncated up to the same order as done in lattice simulations. For studying the efficiency of the truncated Taylor expansion, we calculate the radius of convergence. For zero- and second-order radii, the agreement with lattice is convincing. Furthermore, we make predictions for QCD phase diagram for non-truncated expressions and physical masses. These predictions are to be confirmed by heavy-ion experiments and future lattice calculations with very small lattice spacing and physical quark masses.

hep-ph↗

The influence of strange quarks on QCD phase diagram and chemical freeze-out: Results from the hadron resonance gas model

We confront the lattice results on QCD phase diagram for two and three flavors with the hadron resonance gas model. Taking into account the truncations in the Taylor-expansion of energy density $ε$ done on the lattice at finite chemical potential $μ$, we find that the hadron resonance gas model under the condition of constant $ε$ describes very well the lattice phase diagram. We also calculate the chemical freeze-out curve according to the entropy density $s$. The $s$-values are taken from lattice QCD simulations with two and three flavors. We find that this condition is excellent in reproducing the experimentally estimated parameters of the chemical freeze-out.

hep-ph↗

Heavy ion collisions and lattice QCD at finite baryon density

We discuss a relation between the QCD thermodynamics obtained from a statistical analysis of particle production in heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies and recent LGT results at finite chemical potential. We show that basic thermodynamic properties obtained from the phenomenological statistical operator of a hadron resonance gas that describes particle yields in heavy ion collisions are consistent with recent LGT results. We argue that for $T\leq T_c$ the equation of state derived from Monte--Carlo simulations of two quark--flavor QCD at finite chemical potential can be well described by a hadron resonance gas when using the same set of approximations as used in LGT calculations. We examine the influence of a finite quark mass on the position of the deconfinement transition in temperature and chemical potential plane.

nucl-th↗

Entropy for Color Superconductivity in Quark Matter

We study a model for color superconductivity with both three colors and massless flavors including quark pairing. By using the Hamiltonian in the color-flavor basis we can calculate the quantum entropy. From this we are able to further investigate the phases of the color superconductor, for which we find a rather sharp transition to color superconductivity above a chemical potential around $290 $MeV.

hep-ph↗

Finite temperature quantum correlations in $SU(2)_c$ quark states and quantum spin models

The entanglement at finite temperatures are analyzed by using thermal models for colored quarks making up the hadron physical states. We have found that these quantum correlations entirely vanish at $T_c\geq m_q/\ln(1.5)$. For temperatures larger than $T_c$ the correlations are classical. Also we worked out the entanglement for the transverse Ising spin chain. In dependence on both temperature $T$ and transverse field $λ$ we can identify a certain region, where the quantum effects are likely to dominate the system. We suggest the mutual information as a quantitative measure for the correlations in ground state.

hep-ph↗

Thermodynamics at Non-Zero Baryon Number Density: A Comparison of Lattice and Hadron Resonance Gas Model Calculations

We compare recent lattice studies of QCD thermodynamics at non-zero quark chemical potential with the thermodynamics of a hadron resonance gas. We argue that for T < Tc the equation of state derived from Monte--Carlo simulations of two flavour QCD at non-zero chemical potential can be well described by a hadron resonance gas when using the same set of approximations as used in current lattice calculations. We estimate the importance of truncation errors arising from the use of a Taylor expansion in terms of the quark chemical potential and examine the influence of unphysically large quark masses on the equation of state and the critical conditions for deconfinement.

hep-ph↗

Hadron Resonance Mass Spectrum and Lattice QCD Thermodynamics

We confront lattice QCD results on the transition from the hadronic phase to the quark--gluon plasma with hadron resonance gas and percolation models. We argue that for T < T_c the equation of state derived from Monte--Carlo simulations of (2+1) quark--flavor QCD can be well described by a hadron resonance gas. We examine the quark mass dependence of the hadron spectrum on the lattice and discuss its description in terms of the MIT bag model. This is used to formulate a resonance gas model for arbitrary quark masses which can be compared to lattice calculations. We finally apply this model to analyze the quark mass dependence of the critical temperature obtained in lattice calculations. We show that the value of T_c for different quark masses agrees with lines of constant energy density in a hadron resonance gas. For large quark masses a corresponding contribution from a glueball resonance gas is required.

hep-ph↗