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J. -P. Blaizot

Publications and source records attributed to J. -P. Blaizot.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv1999

Self-consistent hard-thermal-loop thermodynamics for the quark-gluon plasma

Self-consistent approximations allowing the calculation of the entropy and the baryon density of a quark-gluon plasma are presented. These approximations incorporate the essential physics of the hard thermal loops, involve only ultraviolet-finite quantities, and are free from overcounting ambiguities. While being nonperturbative in the strong coupling constant $g$, agreement with ordinary perturbation theory is achieved up to and including order $g^3$. It is shown how the pressure can be reconstructed from the entropy and the baryon density taking into account the scale anomaly. The results obtained are in good agreement with available lattice data down to temperatures of about twice the critical temperature.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Stars and statistical physics: a teaching experience

The physics of stars, their workings and their evolution, is a goldmine of problems in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics. We discuss many examples that illustrate the possibility of deepening student's knowledge of statistical mechanics by an introductory study of stars. The matter constituting the various stellar objects provides examples of equations of state for classical or quantal and relativistic or non-relativistic gases. Maximum entropy can be used to characterize thermodynamic and gravitational equilibrium which determines the structure of stars and predicts their instability above a certain mass. Contraction accompanying radiation induces either heating or cooling, which explains the formation of stars above a minimum mass. The characteristics of the emitted light are understood from black-body radiation and more precisely from the Boltzmann-Lorentz kinetic equation for photons. The luminosity is governed by the transport of heat by photons from the center to the surface. Heat production by thermonuclear fusion is determined by microscopic balance equations. The stability of the steady state of stars is controlled by the interplay of thermodynamics and gravitation.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗
arXiv1999

The entropy of the QCD plasma

Self-consistent approximations in terms of fully dressed propagators provide a simple expression for the entropy of an ultrarelativistic plasma, which isolates the contribution of the elementary excitations as a leading contribution. Further approximations, whose validity is checked on a soluble model involving a scalar field, allow us to calculate the entropy of the QCD plasma. We obtain an accurate description of lattice data for purely gluonic QCD, down to temperatures of about twice the transition temperature.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1995

Non-perturbative aspects of screening phenomena in abelian and non abelian gauge theories

When computed to one-loop order in resummed perturbation theory, the non-abelian Debye mass appears to be logarithmically sensitive to the magnetic scale $g^2T$. More generally, we show that in higher orders power-like infrared divergences forbid the use of perturbation theory to calculate the corrections to Debye screening. A similar infrared problem occurs in the determination of the mass-shell for the scalar propagator in 2+1-dimensional scalar electrodynamics. In this context, we provide a non-perturbative approach which solves the infrared problems and allows for an accurate calculation of the scalar propagator in the vicinity of the mass-shell.

hep-ph↗