Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2008 APS April Meeting and HEDP/HEDLA Meeting
Volume 53, Number 5
Friday–Tuesday, April 11–15, 2008; St. Louis, Missouri
Session T3: Bethe, Bonner Prize Session |
Hide Abstracts |
Sponsoring Units: DNP Chair: Richard Milner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room: Hyatt Regency St. Louis Riverfront (formerly Adam's Mark Hotel), St. Louis E |
Monday, April 14, 2008 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
T3.00001: Hans A. Bethe Prize Talk: Nuclear Physics, Stellar Explosions and the Abundance Evolution in Galaxies Invited Speaker: The computational modeling of astrophysical objects requires the combined treatment of different subfields of physics for a complete description: 1.~hydrodynamics/hydrostatics for the modeling of mass flows, 2.~energy generation and nucleosynthesis for understanding the composition changes due to nuclear reactions and the related energy release, 3.~energy transport via conduction, radiation or possibly convection, and finally 4.~thermodynamic properties of the matter involved, especially the equation of state which creates a direct relation between energy release and hydrodynamic response via pressure and entropy. Nuclear physics obviously plays an essential role for energy generation and nucleosynthesis, but can also enter radiation transport (e.g.~in supernovae) via neutrino-nucleon/ nucleus interaction and clearly determines the equation of state at nuclear densities (e.g.~in neutron stars). In this review we want to highlight the role and impact of nuclear physics and its uncertainties on the explosion mechanism and/or the ejected abundances of type Ia and type II supernovae, novae and X-ray bursts, plus their imprint witnessed in the so-called chemical evolution of galaxies. Special emphasis is given to the properties of proton- as well as neutron-rich exotic nuclei far from stability. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 14, 2008 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
T3.00002: Tom W. Bonner Prize Talk: Elliptic Flow at RHIC Invited Speaker: At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) it was found that the second harmonic of the anisotropic azimuthal particle distribution, called elliptic flow, was large, approaching the hydrodynamic limit. In a non-central collision of nuclei the initial overlap region of participants is lens shaped, but during expansion this initial anisotropy dissipates, and thus the elliptic flow reflects the early time of the collision. Also, the elliptic flow of the observed hadrons seem to scale with their number of quarks, indicating they are formed by coalescence of partons at early time. This large elliptic flow and its scaling are two of the pieces of experimental evidence for early equilibration and formation of a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma with low sheer viscosity -- a perfect fluid. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 14, 2008 4:42PM - 5:18PM |
T3.00003: Quark-Gluon Plasma in QCD, at RHIC, and in String Theory Invited Speaker: The realization that the high temperature phase of QCD is quark-gluon plasma, with properties qualitatively distinct from those of the hadronic phase whose quasi-particles make up the quotidian world, goes back more than 30 years. Over that time, we have gained reliable insight into the thermodynamics of quark-gluon plasma at accessible temperatures from lattice QCD calculations, and we have understood much about its dynamics in the high temperature limit where it becomes weakly coupled. However, in the last five years experimental discoveries at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have taught us that, at least at temperatures within a factor of two of that at which hadrons ionize, the dynamics of quark-gluon plasma is closer to the ideal liquid limit than to the ideal gas limit. These experimental data demand a theoretical understanding of the dynamics of strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma. Such calculations in QCD itself are in their infancy, but string theory provides us with robust tools for exactly this purpose, applicable to the quark-gluon plasmas of many QCD-like theories. I will describe some of the many new results obtained recently from these AdS/CFT calculations, qualitative insights already in hand, prospects for quantitative insights for those properties that turn out to be universal across many different strongly interacting quark-gluon plasmas, and the interplay with near-future data expected from RHIC and from the LHC heavy ion program. [Preview Abstract] |
Follow Us |
Engage
Become an APS Member |
My APS
Renew Membership |
Information for |
About APSThe American Physical Society (APS) is a non-profit membership organization working to advance the knowledge of physics. |
© 2024 American Physical Society
| All rights reserved | Terms of Use
| Contact Us
Headquarters
1 Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740-3844
(301) 209-3200
Editorial Office
100 Motor Pkwy, Suite 110, Hauppauge, NY 11788
(631) 591-4000
Office of Public Affairs
529 14th St NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20045-2001
(202) 662-8700