Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2010
Volume 55, Number 1
Saturday–Tuesday, February 13–16, 2010; Washington, DC
Session B2: String Theory and Nuclear Collisions |
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Sponsoring Units: DNP DPF Chair: William Zajc, Columbia University Room: Thurgood Marshall East |
Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
B2.00001: The Gauge-String Duality and Quantum Chromodynamics Invited Speaker: As the first of three speakers on string theory and nuclear collisions, I will focus on the broad sweep of the gauge-string duality. I will describe the duality's origin in the study of D-branes. I will discuss its status as a conjectured relation between gauge theories in four-dimensional flat space and string theory in five or ten dimensions. I will discuss its relationship to quantum chromodynamics and note the rationale for using it to study the quark-gluon plasma produced in nuclear collisions. I will introduce anti-de Sitter space, which is the main geometrical ingredient in the relevant string theory constructions. And I will describe black holes in anti-de Sitter space, which are the key to understanding thermal states like the quark-gluon plasma in terms of string theory. I will assume some familiarity with black holes and with quarks and gluons, but I will introduce string theory concepts (like D-branes) as I go. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
B2.00002: The Gauge-String Duality in Nuclear Collisions Invited Speaker: We will discuss modeling collisions of ultrarelativistic heavy ions using the methods of string theory, in particular the gauge-string duality. It has been known throughout the history of the relativistic heavy ion field that the majority of particles (mesons and baryons) produced in the collisions come out with small momenta. Due to asymptotic freedom this implies that the coupling constant for interactions of such particles with each other (and the coupling constant for quarks and gluons which led to their creation) is possibly large. Unfortunately this conclusion implies that perturbation theory methods based on Feynman diagrams, which require a small coupling constant, can not provide a complete description of the production of most of the particles in a heavy ion collision. We will discuss how gauge-string duality method, which originated in string theory, provides us with the tool to describe heavy ion collisions at strong coupling. We will demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of the method. In particular we will argue that, if the collision is described by strong-coupling physics, the two colliding nuclei would stop shortly after the collision likely producing a thermalized medium of quarks and gluons - the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We will compare such QGP production scenario with what we know from RHIC experiments. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, February 13, 2010 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
B2.00003: Testing Gauge-String Duality with Nuclear Collision Data from RHIC Invited Speaker: Experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have now moved from a discovery phase to a situation in which we would like to understand the properties of the Strongly Interacting Quark Gluon Plasma (sQGP). Many of the measurements made in the study of Relativistic Heavy Ions at high energies are difficult to model, and predictions for many experimentally accessible quantities are often not available, or depend on assumptions that may not hold true. While string theory does not completely alter this situation, the duality between string theory and gauge theories, has provided predictions in a strongly coupled regime. This has given us a new window into the understanding of the experimental findings at RHIC, i.e. a new window into understanding the properties of the sQGP. I will review some of the results from the RHIC experiments, compare them to the predictions from String Theory, and contrast these to the explanations from other types of calculations. [Preview Abstract] |
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