Constraining the onset of viscous hydrodynamics

We derive two general criteria that can be used to constrain the initial time of the onset of 2nd-order conformal viscous hydrodynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We show this explicitly for 0+1 dimensional viscous hydrodynamics and discuss how to extend the constraint to higher dimensions.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures - To appear in the conference proceedings for Quark Matter 2009, March 30 - April 4, Knoxville, Tennessee. Selected Poster for the Flash Talk Session at QM09. v3: typos corrected, minor format changes and updated reference

Lattice QCD and Hydro/Cascade Model of Heavy Ion Collisions

We report here on a recent lattice study of the QCD transition region at finite temperature and zero chemical potential using domain wall fermions (DWF). We also present a parameterization of the QCD equation of state obtained from lattice QCD that is suitable for use in hydrodynamics studies of heavy ion collisions. Finally, we show preliminary results from a multi-stage hydrodynamics/hadron cascade model of a heavy ion collision, in an attempt to understand how well the experimental data (e.g. particle spectra, elliptic flow, and HBT radii) can constrain the inputs (e.g. initial temperature, freezeout temperature, shear viscosity, equation of state) of the theoretical model.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures. Proceedings for the 26th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Jan 2-9, 201

Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations of the Coma Elliptical NGC 4874 and the Value of the Hubble Constant

We have used the Keck I Telescope to measure K-band surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs) of NGC 4874, the dominant elliptical galaxy in the Coma cluster. We use deep HST WFPC2 optical imaging to account for the contamination due to faint globular clusters and improved analysis techniques to derive measurements of the SBF apparent magnitude. Using a new SBF calibration which accounts for the dependence of K-band SBFs on the integrated color of the stellar population, we measure a distance modulus of 34.99+/-0.21 mag (100+/-10 Mpc) for the Coma cluster. The resulting value of the Hubble constant is 71+/-8 km/s/Mpc, not including any systematic error in the HST Cepheid distance scale.Comment: ApJ Letters, in press. Uses emulateapj5.st

QCD Corrections to Inelastic J/ψJ/\psi Photoproduction

We present a complete calculation of the higher-order perturbative QCD corrections to inelastic photoproduction of $J/\psi$ particles. A comprehensive analysis of total cross sections and differential distributions for the energy range of the fixed-target experiments and for inelastic $J/\psi$ photoproduction at HERA is performed. The cross section and the $J/\psi$ energy spectrum are compared with the available photoproduction data including first results from HERA. This analysis will not only provide information on the gluon distribution of the proton but appears to be a clean test for the underlying picture of quarkonium production as developed so far in the perturbative QCD sector.Comment: 42 pages, Latex, 24 figures appended as uuencoded file, uses epsfig, complete postscript file at ftp://x4u2.desy.de/pub/preprints/desy/1995/desy95-155.ps, hardcopy can be obtained from [email protected]

Color-Singlet and Color-Octet Contributions to J/ψJ/\psi Photoproduction

I discuss the impact of color-octet contributions and higher-order QCD corrections on the cross section for inelastic $J/\psi$ photoproduction. The theoretical predictions are compared with recent experimental data obtained at HERA.Comment: LaTeX, 10 pages, 6 figures. Talk presented at the Workshops `QED and QCD in Higher Orders', Rheinsberg, Germany, April 21-26 and `Quarkonium Physics', Chicago, USA, June 13-15, 1996; to appear in the proceeding

Hard-loop dynamics of non-abelian plasma instabilities

I discuss recent advances in the understanding of non-equilibrium gauge field dynamics in plasmas which have particle distributions which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. In contrast to locally isotropic plasmas such anisotropic plasmas have a spectrum of soft unstable modes which are characterized by exponential growth of transverse (chromo)-magnetic fields at short times. The long-time behavior of such instabilities depends on whether or not the gauge group is abelian or non-abelian. Here I will report on recent numerical simulations which attempt to determine the long-time behavior of an anisotropic non-abelian plasma within hard-loop effective theory.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; Contribution to proceedings of Quark Matter 2005, Budapest, Hungary, Aug 4-9 200

A holistic multi-scale approach to using 3D scanning technology in accident reconstruction

Three-dimensional scanning and documentation methods are becoming increasingly employed by law enforcement personnel for crime scene and accident scene recording. Three-dimensional documentation of the victim’s body in such cases is also increasingly used as the field of forensic radiology and imaging is expanding rapidly. These scanning technologies enable a more complete and detailed documentation than standard autopsy. This was used to examine a fatal pedestrian-vehicle collision where the pedestrian was killed by a van whilst crossing the road. Two competing scenarios were considered for the vehicle speed calculation: the pedestrian being projected forward by the impact or the pedestrian being carried on the vehicle’s bonnet. In order to assist with this, the impact area of the accident vehicle was scanned using laser surface scanning, the victim was scanned using postmortem CT and micro-CT and the data sets were combined to virtually match features of the vehicle to injuries on the victim. Micro-CT revealed additional injuries not previously detected, lending support to the pedestrian-carry theory

Thermalization and plasma instabilities

I review recent analytical and numerical advances in the study of non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma physics. I concentrate on studies of the dynamics of plasmas which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. In contrast to locally isotropic plasmas such anisotropic plasmas have a spectrum of soft unstable modes which are characterized by exponential growth of transverse (chromo)-magnetic fields at short times. Parametrically the instabilities provide the fastest method for generation of soft background fields and dominate the short-time dynamics of the system.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; Contribution to the proceedings of the International Conference on Strong & Electroweak Matter 2006, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, May 200

Color-Octet Contributions to J/ψJ/\psi Photoproduction

We have calculated the leading color-octet contributions to the production of $J/\psi$ particles in photon-proton collisions. Using the values for the color-octet matrix elements extracted from fits to prompt $J/\psi$ data at the Tevatron, we demonstrate that distinctive color-octet signatures should be visible in $J/\psi$ photoproduction. However, these predictions appear at variance with recent experimental data obtained at HERA, indicating that the phenomenological importance of the color-octet contributions is smaller than expected from theoretical considerations and suggested by the Tevatron fits.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, epsfig, 4 figure

Energy Loss of a Heavy Fermion in an Anisotropic QED Plasma

We compute the leading-order collisional energy loss of a heavy fermion propagating in a QED plasma with an electron distribution function which is anisotropic in momentum space. We show that in the presence of such anisotropies there can be a significant directional dependence of the heavy fermion energy loss with the effect being quite large for highly-relativistic velocities. We also repeat the analysis of the isotropic case more carefully and show that the final result depends on the intermediate scale used to separate hard and soft contributions to the energy loss. We then show that the canonical isotropic result is obtained in the weak-coupling limit. For intermediate-coupling we use the residual scale dependence as a measure of our theoretical uncertainty. We also discuss complications which could arise due to the presence of unstable soft photonic modes and demonstrate that the calculation of the energy loss is safe.Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures. v2 - Correction to normalization of numerical results; some figures modified as a result; discussion of role of unstable modes added along with two new figure