THE LITTLE BANG?
A reminder of our previous brief
look at understanding the equation of state of nuclear matter.
We will briefly review, then finally get to our only existing
theory of nuclear matter, based on the lattice gauge theory of
the strong interaction.
When nuclear matter is compressed so that nucleon
probability distributions overlap, confinement vanishes, color
is "freed," and quarks are essentially free particles in a Fermi
gas, with the result that they can form Cooper pairs
(like electrons in some metals at very low temperatures) giving
rise to "color
superconductivity" in analogy to Type 1 superconductivity
in some metals at very low temperatures.
From Wikipedia: "Theoretical and experimental
works show that the formation of a quark–gluon plasma occurs
at the temperature of T ≈ 150–160 MeV (the Hagedorn
temperature) and an energy density of ≈ 0.4–1 GeV/cubic fm.
While at first a phase transition was expected, present day
theoretical interpretations propose [instead] a phase
transformation similar to the process of ionisation of normal
matter into ionic and electron plasma." A presumed critical
point prevents an observable phase transition viewable with
existing accelerators. Currently in Germany a new accelerator
is under construction, which can produce beams of antiprotons,
and of all nuclei, at roughly 1 GeV/u. This accelerator will
be able to explore regions of the nuclear equation of state
that are currently not possible to access.
The New Facility Under Construction
MOVIE 1
MOVIE 2
QUARK-GLUON PLASMA
In lattice gauge QCD, quarks are placed at
specific sites on a lattice, and gluons are placed on the
links between lattice sites. This approach was first
suggested in the early 1970s by Kenneth
Wilson (1936 - 2013), and has ever since been the
most often-used approach to solving strong-interaction
problems. At any given time, such calculations consume all
the power of the largest and fastest available computers.
Eventually supercomputers were specifically designed with
lattice gauge QCD calculations in mind.
LATTICE GAUGE MOVIE
Vibrations and Rotations!
Radioactivity!
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