arXiv subjects

Ranjita K. Mohapatra

Publications and source records attributed to Ranjita K. Mohapatra.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Neutron star with dark matter using vector portal

Compact astrophysical objects, such as neutron star, can provide a unique environment where the interplay between strongly interacting nuclear matter and dark matter (DM) can yield possible observable signatures. We investigate here the impact of fermionic DM interacting with nucleons via a vector mediator ($Z'$) portal inside neutron stars using the relativistic mean-field (RMF) framework. Unlike scalar portal DM models, which primarily modify the effective nucleon mass through scalar interactions, vector mediators (Z') introduce additional repulsive interactions that directly affect the baryonic chemical potential and the pressure of dense matter. We show that the precise measurements of neutron star properties, including the mass-radius relation and tidal deformability from gravitational wave observations, X-ray and radio observations of pulsars, can shed light on properties of DM. We study the gross structural properties of a neutron star using the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equations, employing an equation of state (EOS) for neutron star matter in the presence of vector portal-assisted DM. The resulting stellar configurations consistent with observational bounds from gravitational wave observations (GW170817) in LIGO/Virgo and X-ray observations of pulsar PSR J0030+0451 in NICER, are shown to constrain the vector portal DM parameters. It is observed that, while large portal mass can soften the EOS of the DM admixed neutron star matter, the light portal mass can make the EOS stiffer at large densities resulting in distinct mass-radius relation and the tidal deformability between the two scenarios. The vector portal DM scenario, with DM interaction with quarks via Z' vector boson, can establish a direct connection to terrestrial searches, including direct and indirect detection and collider searches for the Z' boson.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2024

QCD Phase Diagram and the Finite Volume Fireball: A Model Study

Experimental investigations of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter involve collisions of heavy ions at ultrarelativistic velocities. The medium created in such a collision is often of dimensions a few fermi, in particular in the Beam Energy Scan experiments. An understanding of the effect of the finite volume and the boundary is important for connecting the experimental results to the phase diagram. Using the Nambu Jona-Lasinio model, an effective theory for the chiral transition of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), we have studied the effect of the finite volume of the fireball on the transition line at finite temperature and density using the MIT boundary condition to mimic the condition that the system is deconfined inside. The shift of the transition temperature for finite volume and finite volume effect on number density and its susceptibilities are studied. The volume effects should be considered when looking for signatures of the phase diagram in experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2021

Diffusion matrix associated with the diffusion processes of multiple conserved charges in a hot and dense hadronic matter

Bulk matter produced in heavy ion collisions has multiple conserved quantum numbers like baryon number, strangeness and electric charge. The diffusion process of these charges can be described by a diffusion matrix describing the interdependence of diffusion of different charges. The diffusion coefficient matrix is estimated here from the Boltzmann kinetic theory for the hadronic phase within relaxation time approximation. In the derivation for the same, we impose the Landau-Lifshitz conditions of fit. This leads to e.g. the diagonal diffusion coefficients to be manifestly positive definite. The explicit calculations are performed within the ambit of hadron resonance gas model with and without excluded volume corrections. It is seen that the off-diagonal components can be significant to affect the charge diffusion in a fluid with multiple conserved charges. The excluded volume correction effects is seen to be not significant in the estimation of the elements of the diffusion matrix.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2021

Dynamics of QCD Matter -- current status

In this article, there are 18 sections discussing various current topics in the field of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and related phenomena, which will serve as a snapshot of the current state of the art. Section 1 reviews experimental results of some recent light-flavored particle production data from ALICE collaboration. Other sections are mostly theoretical in nature. Very strong but transient magnetic field created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions could have important observational consequences. This has generated a lot of theoretical activity in the last decade. Sections 2, 7, 9, 10 and 11 deal with the effects of the magnetic field on the properties of the QCD matter. There are several unanswered questions about the QCD phase diagram. Sections 3, 11 and 18 discuss various aspects of the QCD phase diagram and phase transitions. Recent years have witnessed interesting developments in foundational aspects of hydrodynamics and their application to heavy-ion collisions. Sections 12, 15, 16 and 17 of this article probe some aspects of this exciting field. Transport coefficients together with their temperature- and density-dependence, are essential inputs in hydrodynamical calculations. Sections 5, 8 and 14 deal with calculation/estimation of various transport coefficients (shear and bulk viscosity, thermal conductivity, relaxation times, etc.) of quark matter and hadronic matter. Sections 4, 6 and 13 deals with interesting new developments in the field. Section 4 discusses color dipole gluon distribution function at small transverse momentum in the form of a series of Bells polynomials. Section 6 discusses the properties of Higgs boson in the quark gluon plasma using Higgs-quark interaction. Section 13 discusses modification of coalescence model to incorporate viscous corrections and application of this model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

In medium properties of axion within a Polyakov loop enhanced Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model

We estimate the axion properties i.e. its mass, topological susceptibility and the self-coupling within the framework of Polyakov loop enhanced Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model at finite temperature and quark chemical potential. PNJL model, where quarks couple simultaneously to the chiral condensate and to a background temporal quantum chromodynamics (QCD) gauge field, includes two important features of QCD phase transition, i.e. deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration. The Polyakov loop in PNJL model plays an important role near the critical temperature. We have shown significant difference in the axion properties calculated in PNJL model compared to the same obtained using Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model. We find that both the mass of the axion and its self-coupling are correlated with the chiral transition as well as the confinement-deconfinement transition. We have also estimated the axion properties at finite chemical potential. Across the QCD transition temperature and/or quark chemical potential axion mass and its self-coupling also changes significantly. Since the PNJL model includes both the fermionic sector and the gauge fields, it can give reliable estimates of the axion properties, i.e. it's mass and the self-coupling in a hot and dense QCD medium. We also compare our results with the lattice QCD results whenever available.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Magneto-Seebeck coefficient and Nernst coefficient of hot and dense hadron gas

We discuss the thermoelectric effect of hot and dense hadron gas within the framework of the hadron resonance gas model. Using the relativistic Boltzmann equation within the relaxation time approximation we estimate the Seebeck coefficient of the hot and dense hadronic medium with a gradient in temperature and baryon chemical potential. The hadronic medium in this calculation is modeled by the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model with hadrons and their resonances up to a mass cutoff $Λ\sim 2.6$ GeV. We also extend the formalism of the thermoelectric effect for a nonvanishing magnetic field. The presence of magnetic field also leads to a Hall type thermoelectric coefficient (Nernst coefficient) for the hot and dense hadronic matter apart from a magneto-Seebeck coefficient. We find that generically in the presence of a magnetic field Seebeck coefficient decreases while the Nernst coefficient increases with the magnetic field. At higher temperature and/or baryon chemical potential these coefficients approach to their values at vanishing magnetic field.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Transport coefficients of hot and dense hadron gas in a magnetic field: a relaxation time approach

We estimate various transport coefficients of hot and dense hadronic matter in the presence of magnetic field. The estimation is done through solutions of the relativistic Boltzmann transport equation in the relaxation time approximation.We have investigated the temperature and the baryon chemical potential dependence of these transport coefficients. Explicit calculations are done for the hadronic matter in the ambit of hadron resonance gas model. We estimate thermal conductivity, electrical conductivity and the shear viscosity of hadronic matter in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. Magnetic field, in general, makes the transport coefficients anisotropic. It is also observed that all the transport coefficients perpendicular to the magnetic field are smaller compared to their isotropic counterpart.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Electrical conductivity and Hall conductivity of hot and dense quark gluon plasma in a magnetic field: a quasi particle approach

We estimate here the electrical and Hall conductivity using a quasiparticle approach for quark matter. We use a Boltzmann kinetic approach in presence of external magnetic field. We confront the results of model calculations with Lattice QCD simulations for vanishing magnetic field. In general electrical conductivity decreases with magnetic field. The Hall conductivity on the other hand can show a non monotonic behaviour with magnetic field due to an intricate interplay of behaviour of relaxation time and strength of the magnetic field. We argue for vanishing quark chemical potential Hall conductivity vanishes and quark gluon plasma with finite quark chemical potential can show Hall effect. Both electrical conductivity and Hall conductivity increases with increasing quark chemical potential.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Electrical conductivity and Hall conductivity of hot and dense hadron gas in a magnetic field: a relaxation time approach

We estimate the electrical conductivity and the Hall conductivity of hot and dense hadron gas using the relaxation time approximation of the Boltzmann transport equation in the presence of electromagnetic field. We have investigated the temperature and the baryon chemical potential dependence of these transport coefficients in presence of magnetic field. The explicit calculation is performed within the ambit of the hadron resonance gas model. We find that the electrical conductivity decreases in the presence of magnetic field. The Hall conductivity on the other hand shows a non monotonic behavior with respect to the dependence on magnetic field. We argue that for a pair plasma (particle-anti particle plasma) where $μ_B=0$, Hall conductivity vanishes. Only for non vanishing baryon chemical potential Hall conductivity has non zero value. We also estimate the electrical conductivity and the Hall conductivity as a function of the center of mass energy along the freeze out curve as may be relevant for relativistic heavy ion collision experiments.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Transport coefficients of hadronic matter in a van der Walls hadron resonance gas model

We estimate the transport coefficients like shear and bulk viscosities of hot hadronic matter in van der Walls hadron resonance gas ( VDW HRG ) model in the relaxation time approximation. We also have compared these results with excluded volume hadron resonance ( EV HRG ) calculations. $η/s$ decreases as the temperature of the hadronic system increases at a fixed baryon chemical potential. $η/s$ in VDW HRG is always less than that of EV HRG case due to the large entropy density in VDW HRG compared to EV HRG case. At a fixed chemical potential, $ζ/s$ in VDW HRG is also less than that of EV HRG case. We also have estimated these transport coefficients along the freezeout curve. There is an increase in chemical freezeout temperature in VDW HRG case determined from the universal condition $E/N =ε/n \sim 1$ $GeV$. We also have calculated the variation of attraction parameter along the freezeout curve $E/N =ε/n \sim 1$ $GeV$ keeping the freezeout parameters same as in ideal HRG and the repulsion parameter fixed. We observe a nontrivial variation of attraction parameter along the freezeout curve where it increases in the meson dominated region and decreases in the baryon dominated region along the chemical freezeout curve. $η/s$ in EV HRG is always large than that VDW HRG along the freezeout curve. This is also true for $ζ/s$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2019

Effect of inverse magnetic catalysis on conserved charge fluctuations in hadron resonance gas model

The effect of inverse magnetic catalysis (IMC) has been observed on the conserved charge fluctuations and the correlations along the chemical freeze-out curve in a hadron resonance gas model. The fluctuations and the correlations have been compared with and without charge conservations. The charge conservation plays an important role in the calculation of the fluctuations at nonzero magnetic field and for the fluctuations in the strange charge at zero magnetic field. The charge conservation diminishes the correlations $χ_{BS}$ and $χ_{QB}$, but enhances the correlation $χ_{QS}$. The baryonic fluctuations (2nd order) at $B = 0.25$ ${GeV}^2$ increases more than two times compared to $B = 0$ at higher $μ_{B}$. The fluctuations have been compared at nonzero magnetic field along the freeze-out curve i.e along fitted parameters of the chemical freeze-out temperature and chemical potentials, with the fluctuations at nonzero magnetic field along the freeze-out curve with the IMC effect, and the results are very different with the IMC effect. This is clearly seen in the products of different moments ${σ^2}/{M}$ and $Sσ$ of net-kaon distribution.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2018

Spin Polarization and Chiral Condensation in 2+1 flavor Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential

We investigate the ferromagnetic (spin polarization) condensation in (2+1) flavor Nambu Jona-Lasinio(NJL) model with non-zero current quark masses at finite temperature and density which may be relevant in the context of neutron stars. The spin polarization condensation arises due to a tensor type interaction which may be generated due to non-perturbative effects in Quantum Chromodynamics(QCD). In this investigation we have shown the interplay between chiral condensate and spin polarization condensation for different values of tensor coupling. Spin polarization in the case of 2+1 flavor is different from two flavor case because of additional F$_8$ condensate associated with $λ_8^f$ flavor generator. We find a non-zero value of the two spin condensates in the chirally restored phase. Beyond a certain temperature the spin polarization condensates vanish for rather large quark chemical potentials. The spin condensates affect the chiral phase transition, quark masses, and the quark dispersion relation. The spin polarization condensate appears only in the chiral restored phase for light quarks. For large enough tensor couplings, it is observed that the spin polarization condensate acts as a catalyst for chiral symmetry restoration. Thermodynamic behavior of $F_3$ and $F_8$ are found to be different and they affect the quark masses differently.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2017

Z(3) metastable states in Polyakov Quark Meson model

We study the existence of Z(3) metastable states in the presence of the dynamical quarks within the ambit of Polyakov quark meson (PQM) model. Within the parameters of the model, it is seen that for temperatures $T_m$ greater than the chiral transition temperature $T_c$, Z(3) metastable states exist ( $T_{m} \sim 310$ MeV at zero chemical potential). At finite chemical potential $T_m$ is larger than the same at vanishing chemical potential. We also observe a shift of ($\sim 5^\circ$) in the phase of the metastable vacua at zero chemical potential. The energy density difference between true and Z(3) metastable vacua is very large in this model. This indicates a strong explicit symmetry breaking effect due to quarks in PQM model. We compare this explicit symmetry breaking in PQM model with small explicit symmetry breaking as a linear term in Polyakov loop added to the Polyakov loop potential. We also study about the possibility of domain growth in a quenched transition to QGP in relativistic heavy ion collisions.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2012

Domain growth and fluctuations during quenched transition to QGP in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We model the initial confinement-deconfinement transition in relativistic heavy-ion collisions as a rapid quench in view of expected rapid thermalization to a QGP state. The transition is studied using the Polyakov loop model, with the initial field configuration (in the confining phase) covering a small neighborhood of the confining vacuum $l \simeq 0$, as appropriate for $T < T_c$. Quench is implemented by evolving this initial configuration with the effective potential at a temperature $T > T_c$. We study the formation of Z(3) domain structure and its evolution during the transition as $l$ rolls down in different directions from the top of the central hill in the effective potential of $l$. When explicit Z(3) symmetry breaking effects (arising from dynamical quark effects) are small, then we find well defined Z(3) domains which coarsen in time. Remarkably, the magnitude plot of $l$ shows vacuum bubble like configurations arising during the quench. This first order transition like behavior occurs even though there is no metastable vacuum separated by a barrier from the true vacuum for the parameter values used. When the initial field configuration everywhere rolls down roughly along the same direction (as will happen with large explicit symmetry breaking) then we do not find such bubble-like configurations. However, in this case we find huge oscillations of $l$ with large length scales. We show that such large oscillations can lead to large fluctuations in the evolution of flow anisotropies compared to the equilibrium transition case.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Analyzing flow anisotropies with excursion sets in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We show that flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions can be analyzed using a certain technique of shape analysis of excursion sets recently proposed by us for CMBR fluctuations to investigate anisotropic expansion history of the universe. The technique analyzes shapes (sizes) of patches above (below) certain threshold value for transverse energy/particle number (the excursion sets) as a function of the azimuthal angle and rapidity. Modeling flow by imparting extra anisotropic momentum to the momentum distribution of particles from HIJING, we compare the resulting distributions for excursion sets at two different azimuthal angles. Angles with maximum difference in the two distributions identify the event plane, and the magnitude of difference in the two distributions relates to the magnitude of momentum anisotropy, i.e. elliptic flow.

nucl-th↗

arXiv2011

Effects of quarks on the formation and evolution of Z(3) walls and strings in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We investigate the effects of explicit breaking of Z(3) symmetry due to the presence of dynamical quarks on the formation and evolution of Z(3) walls and associated QGP strings within Polyakov loop model. We carry out numerical simulations of the first order quark-hadron phase transition via bubble nucleation (which may be appropriate, for example, at finite baryon chemical potential) in the context of relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. Using appropriate shifting of the order parameter in the Polyakov loop effective potential, we calculate the bubble profiles using bounce technique, for the true vacuum as well as for the metastable Z(3) vacua, and estimate the associated nucleation probabilities. These different bubbles are then nucleated and evolved and resulting formation and dynamics of Z(3) walls and QGP strings is studied. We discuss various implications of the existence of these Z(3) interfaces and the QGP strings, especially in view of the effects of the explicit breaking of the Z(3) symmetry on the formation and dynamical evolution of these objects.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Probing the anisotropic expansion history of the universe with cosmic microwave background

We propose a simple technique to detect any anisotropic expansion stage in the history of the universe starting from the inflationary stage to the surface of last scattering from the CMBR data. We use the property that any anisotropic expansion in the universe would deform the shapes of the primordial density perturbations and this deformation can be detected in a shape analysis of superhorizon fluctuations in CMBR. Using this analysis we obtain the constraint on any previous anisotropic expansion of the universe to be less than about 35%.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Enhancement of flow anisotropies due to magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

It is known that the presence of background magnetic field in cosmic plasma distorts the acoustic peaks in CMBR. This primarily results from different types of waves in the plasma with velocities depending on the angle between the magnetic field and the wave vector. We consider the consequences of these effects in relativistic heavy-ion collisions where very strong magnetic fields arise during early stages of the plasma evolution. We show that flow coefficients can be significantly affected by these effects when the magnetic field remains strong during early stages due to strong induced fields in the conducting plasma. In particular, the presence of magnetic field can lead to enhancement in the elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$.

hep-ph↗