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Robert D. Pisarski

Publications and source records attributed to Robert D. Pisarski.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
arXiv2001

Small, Dense Quark Stars from Perturbative QCD

As a model for nonideal behavior in the equation of state of QCD at high density, we consider cold quark matter in perturbation theory. To second order in the strong coupling constant, $α_s$, the results depend sensitively on the choice of the renormalization mass scale. Certain choices of this scale correspond to a strongly first order chiral transition, and generate quark stars with maximum masses and radii approximately half that of ordinary neutron stars. At the center of these stars, quarks are essentially massless.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

Aspects of parity, CP, and time reversal violation in hot QCD

We discuss various aspects of parity, CP, and time reversal invariances in QCD. In particular, we focus attention on the previously proposed possibility that these experimentally established symmetries of strong interactions may be broken at finite temperature and/or density. This would have dramatic signatures in relativistic heavy ion collisions; we describe some of the most promising signals.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2000

Quark-Gluon Plasma as a Condensate of Z(3) Wilson Lines

Effective theories for the thermal Wilson line are constructed in an SU(N) gauge theory at nonzero temperature. I propose that the order of the deconfining phase transition for Z(N) Wilson lines is governed by the behavior of SU(N) Wilson lines. In a mean field theory, the free energy in the deconfined phase is controlled by the condensate for Z(N) Wilson lines. Numerical simulations on the lattice, and the mean field theory for Z(3) Wilson lines, suggest that about any finite temperature transition in QCD, the dominant correlation length increases by a large, uniform factor, of order five.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

Critical Line for H-Superfluidity in Strange Quark Matter?

Based upon the analogy to the electroweak phase diagram, I propose that in QCD there might be a critical line for a superfluid transition, in the plane of chemical potential and temperature. The order parameter has the quantum numbers of the H-dibaryon, but the transition is driven by color superconductivity in strange quark matter.

nucl-th↗
arXiv1999

Why Color-Flavor Locking is Just like Chiral Symmetry Breaking

We review how a classification into representations of color and flavor can be used to understand the possible patterns of symmetry breaking for color superconductivity in dense quark matter. In particular, we show how for three flavors, color-flavor locking is precisely analogous to the usual pattern of chiral symmetry breaking in the QCD vacuum.

nucl-th↗
arXiv1999

Pionic Measures of Parity and CP Violation in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

The collisions of large nuclei at high energies could produce metastable vacua which are odd under parity, P, charge conjugation, C, and/or CP. Using only the three-momenta of charged pions (or kaons), we show how to construct global observables which are odd under P, C, and CP, and which can be measured on an event by event basis. Model dependent estimates of the P-odd observables are on the order of 10^(-3).

hep-ph↗
arXiv1999

A first order transition and parity violation in a color superconductor

In cold, dense quark matter, quarks of different flavor can form Cooper pairs which are anti-triplets under color and have total spin J=0. The transition to a phase where strange quarks condense with either up or down quarks is driven first order by the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism. At densities sufficiently high to (effectively) restore the axial U(1) symmetry, then relative to the ordinary vacuum, the condensation of up with down quarks (effectively) breaks parity spontaneously.

nucl-th↗
arXiv1999

The Potential for the Phase of the Wilson line at Nonzero Quark Density

The contribution of quarks to the effective potential for the phase of the Wilson line is computed at nonzero temperature and quark chemical potential to one and two loop order. At zero temperature, regardless of the value of the quark chemical potential, the effective potential for the phase of the Wilson line vanishes. At nonzero temperature, for special values of the phase the free energy of quarks equals that of bosons; at nonzero chemical potential, such quarks can ``Bose condense'', albeit with negative density.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1998

Real-time Relaxation and Kinetics in Hot Scalar QED: Landau Damping

The real time evolution of field condensates with soft length scales k^{-1}>(eT)^{-1} is solved in hot scalar electrodynamics, with a view towards understanding relaxational phenomena in the QGP and the electroweak plasma. We find that transverse gauge invariant non-equilibrium expectation values of fields relax via {\em power laws} to asymptotic amplitudes that are determined by the quasiparticle poles. The long time relaxational dynamics and relevant time scales are determined by the behaviour of the retarded self-energy not at the small frequencies, but at the Landau damping thresholds. This explains the presence of power laws and not of exponential decay. Furthermore, we derive the influence functional, the Langevin equation and the fluctuation-dissipation theorem for the soft modes, identifying the correlation functions that emerge in the classical limit. We show that a Markovian approximation fails to describe the dynamics {\em both} at short and long times. We also introduce a novel kinetic approach that goes beyond the standard Boltzmann equation and incorporates off-shell processes and find that the distribution function for soft quasiparticles relaxes with a power law through Landau damping. We also find an unusual dressing dynamics of bare particles and anomalous (logarithmic) relaxation of hard quasiparticles.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Non-equilibrium evolution of a `Tsunami': Dynamical Symmetry Breaking

We propose to study the non-equilibrium features of heavy-ion collisions by following the evolution of an initial state with a large number of quanta with a distribution around a momentum |\vec k_0| corresponding to a thin spherical shell in momentum space, a `tsunami'. An O(N); ({\vec Φ}^2)^2 model field theory in the large N limit is used as a framework to study the non-perturbative aspects of the non-equilibrium dynamics including a resummation of the effects of the medium (the initial particle distribution). In a theory where the symmetry is spontaneously broken in the absence of the medium, when the initial number of particles per correlation volume is chosen to be larger than a critical value the medium effects can restore the symmetry of the initial state. We show that if one begins with such a symmetry-restored, non-thermal, initial state, non-perturbative effects automatically induce spinodal instabilities leading to a dynamical breaking of the symmetry. As a result there is explosive particle production and a redistribution of the particles towards low momentum due to the nonlinearity of the dynamics. The asymptotic behavior displays the onset of Bose condensation of pions and the equation of state at long times is that of an ultrarelativistic gas although the momentum distribution is non-thermal.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

Nonabelian Debye screening, tsunami waves, and worldline fermions

I give a pedagogical review of the derivation for the effective lagrangian for nonabelian Debye screening, or hard thermal loops. Following Kelly, Liu, Lucchesi, and Manuel, I give the simplest derivation possible, using classical kinetic theory. The result is valid not just for a thermal, but for an arbitrary initial distributions. I use this to study the evolution, at short times, of a gluonic ``tsunami wave''. I also suggest how classical kinetic theory may arise at one loop order. Using the wordline representation of the one loop effective action, I follow D'Hoker and Gagné to replace the Wilson line by an integral over worldline fermions. A bilinear of these worldline fermions naturally defines a nonabelian charge, whose equation of motion is Wong's equation.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

How pi0 -> gamma gamma changes with temperature

At zero temperature, in the chiral limit the amplitude for pi0 to decay into two photons is directly related to the coefficient of the axial anomaly. At any nonzero temperature, this direct relationship is lost: while the coefficient of the axial anomaly is independent of temperature, in a thermal bath the anomalous Ward identities do not uniquely constrain the amplitude for pi0 -> gamma gamma. Explicit calculation shows that to lowest order about zero temperature, this amplitude decreases.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1997

pi_0 --> gamma gamma and the axial anomaly at non zero temperature

In vacuum, in the chiral limit the coupling of a pion to two on-shell photons is directly related to the coefficient of the axial anomaly in QED. This relationship is lost at any nonzero temperature. Explicit calculations show that the coupling decreases with temperature and vanishes at Tc, the temperature of chiral symmetry restoration.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1996

Scattering of soft, cool pions

Consider the effective lagrangian for pions in the chiral limit, computed to leading order in an expansion about zero temperature. To describe the scattering of pions with small momenta, it is necessary to include not just the usual shift in the pion decay constant, but also a new, nonlocal term, which is precisely analogous to the hard thermal loops of hot gauge theories.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1996

On the Physics of a Cool Pion Gas

At finite temperature, the Nambu-Goldstone bosons of a spontaneously broken chiral symmetry travel at a velocity $v < 1$. This effect first appears at order $\sim T^4$ in an expansion about low temperature, and can be related to the appearence of two distinct pion decay constants in a thermal bath. We discuss some consequences on the thermodynamics of a gas of massless pions.

hep-ph↗
arXiv1996

Propagation of Cool Pions

For an exact chiral symmetry which is spontaneously broken at zero temperature, we show that at nonzero temperature, generally pions travel at {\it less} than the speed of light. This effect first appears at next to leading order in an expansion about low temperature. When the chiral symmetry is approximate we obtain two formulas, like that of Gell-Mann, Oakes, and Renner, for the static and dynamic pion masses.

hep-ph↗