Search

NA60 collaboration has extracted the inverse slope parameters, T_{eff} of the dimuon spectra originating from the In+In collisions at root(s_NN)=17.3 GeV for various invariant mass region. They have observed that the inverse slope parameter as a function of invariant mass of the lepton pair drops beyond the rho-peak. In the present work, first we reproduce the observed invariant mass and transverse momentum spectra of the muon pairs. Then show that the slope parameters extracted from the transverse momentum distributions for various invariant mass region windows can be explained by assuming formation of a partonic phase initially which reverts to hadronic phase through a weak first order phase transition at a temperature T_c ~ 175 MeV. It is observed that a scenario without the formation of a partonic phase does not reproduce the non-monotonic behaviour of the inverse slope parameter non typical of radial flow.

Maintenance of ploidy in sexually reproducing organisms requires a specialized form of cell division called meiosis that generates genetically diverse haploid gametes from diploid germ cells. Meiotic cells halve their ploidy by undergoing two rounds of nuclear division (meiosis I and II) after a single round of DNA replication. Research in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) has shown that four major deviations from the mitotic cell cycle during meiosis are essential for halving ploidy. The deviations are (1) formation of a link between homologous chromosomes by crossover, (2) monopolar attachment of sister kinetochores during meiosis I, (3) protection of centromeric cohesion during meiosis I, and (4) suppression of DNA replication following exit from meiosis I. In this review we present the current understanding of the above four processes in budding yeast and examine the possible conservation of molecular mechanisms from yeast to humans.

The rho and omega meson self-energy at finite temperature and baryon density have been analysed for an exhaustive set of mesonic and baryonic loops in the real time formulation of thermal field theory. The large enhancement of spectral strength below the nominal rho mass is seen to cause a substantial enhancement in dilepton pair yield in this mass region. The integrated yield after space-time evolution using relativistic hydrodynamics with quark gluon plasma in the initial state leads to a very good agreement with the experimental data from In-In collisions obtained by the NA60 collaboration., Comment: Invited Talk at the DAE-BRNS Workshop on Hadron Physics, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India, October 31-November 4, 2011

The budding yeast transcriptional repressor Sum1p binds to several promoters and recruits Hst1p, an NAD(+)-dependent histone deacetylase, at these promoters with the help of another protein Rfm1p. Hst1p causes repression of transcription by histone deacetylation of chromatin at its target promoters. In an earlier work we have shown that about 13-fold increase in Sum1p levels, brought about by expressing SUM1 from the high copy 2 micron plasmid (2 μ-SUM1), suppressed cold-sensitive growth phenotype associated with mutations in the α-tubulin gene TUB1. In this work we show that the dosage suppression is accompanied by an elevation of α-tubulin levels in mutant cells at their non-permissive growth temperature of 14°C. Further, 2 μ-SUM1 significantly rescued the benomyl-supersensitive growth phenotype of mutant cells having wild-type tubulin subunits but a deficiency in tubulin folding cofactors. Finally, wild-type 2 μ-SUM1 transformants, having no known mutation in microtubule-related genes, displayed spindle microtubules which were substantially more stable than of wild-type control cells when challenged with microtubule-depolymerizing drugs. Therefore, we conclude that high copies of Sum1p stabilize microtubules against a variety of adverse and destabilizing conditions like mutations, low temperatures and drugs.

We study the variation of elliptic flow of thermal dileptons with transverse momentum and invariant mass of the pairs for Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV. The dilepton productions from quark gluon plasma (QGP) and hot hadrons have been considered including the spectral change of light vector mesons in the thermal bath. The space time evolution has been carried out within the frame work of 2+1 dimensional ideal hydrodynamics with lattice+hadron resonance gas equation of state. We find that a judicious selection of invariant mass(M) and transverse momentum (p_T) windows can be used to extract the collective properties of quark matter, hadronic matter and also get a distinct signature of medium effects on vector mesons. Our results indicate a reduction of elliptic flow (v_2) for M beyond phi mass, which if observed experimentally would give the measure of v_2 of the partonic phase., To appear in Phys. Rev. C (Rapid Comm.)

The ρ meson self-energy in nuclear matter from baryonic loops is analysed in the real-time formulation of field theory at finite temperature and density. The discontinuities across the branch cuts of the self-energy function are evaluated for an exhaustive set of resonances in the loops considering the fully relativistic thermal baryon propagator including anti-baryons. Numerical calculations show a significant broadening of the ρ spectral function coming from the Landau cut. Adding the contribution from mesonic loops, the full spectral function of the ρ in a thermal gas of mesons, baryons and anti-baryons in equilibrium is evaluated at various values of temperature and baryonic chemical potential.

The structure of the one loop self-energy graphs of the $\rho$ meson is analyzed in the real time formulation of thermal field theory. The modified spectral function of the $\rho$ meson in hot hadronic matter leads to a large enhancement of lepton pair production below the bare peak of the $\rho$. It has been shown that the effective temperature extracted from the inverse slope of the transverse momentum distributions for various invariant mass ($M$) windows of the pair can be used as an efficient tool to characterize different phases of the evolving matter., Comment: Presented at the 6th International Conference on the Physics and Astrophysics of Quark Gluon Plasma, ICPAQGP2010, Dec. 6-10, Goa, India

A relativistic formula is derived for the self-energy of {rho} meson in nuclear matter from a baryonic loop graph containing nucleon and {Delta}(1232). After identifying the Lindhard function, we find another term in it that contributes appreciably to the real part of the self-energy. We also note small errors that may appear in the numerical calculation owing to the use of incorrect {Delta} coupling with other fields and presence of quadratic distribution functions in the self-energy formula.

Carbohydrates are generally considered to be poorly immunogenic. Therefore, new approaches for enhancing their immunogenicity are important for the development of carbohydrates as vaccine components. We hypothesized that conjugation of an l-rhamnose (Rha) moiety to a carbohydrate antigen would enhance the antigenicity of the antigen in mice possessing anti-Rha antibodies via an antibody-dependent antigen uptake mechanism. To explore this hypothesis, we synthesized a single-molecule three-component vaccine containing the GalNAc-O-Thr (Tn) tumor-specific antigen, a 20 amino acid helper T-cell epitope (YAF) derived from an outer-membrane protein of Neisseria meningitides, and a Rha moiety. The vaccine was synthesized by automated Fmoc-based solid-phase peptide synthesis and deacetylated by brief treatment with NaOMe. Groups of female BALB/c mice were immunized and boosted with Rha-ovalbumin (Rha-OVA) formulated with either TiterMax Gold or Sigma Adjuvant System for a period of 35 days in order to determine optimal conditions for generating anti-Rha titers in mice. Anti-Rha antibody titers were >100 fold higher in groups of mice immunized with Rha-OVA than in the control groups. Mice producing anti-Rha were challenged with Rha-YAF-Tn or YAF-Tn. Sera collected from the groups initially immunized with Rha-OVA and later challenged with Rha-YAF-Tn showed a 2-fold increase in anti-Tn titer at 1/100 serum dilution relative to mice not immunized with Rha-OVA. An in vitro T-cell proliferation study using cells primed with either Rha-YAF-Tn or YAF-Tn was done to examine possible differences in antigen uptake and presentation due to anti-Rha antibody and chemical modification. Proliferation of T cells was stimulated by a 10-fold lower antigen concentration in the presence of Rha antibodies. The results strongly suggest that T cells present in the spleen were presented with higher concentrations of Rha-YAF-Tn as a result of the presence of the anti-Rha antibodies.

A hurdle in glycosylation reactions of 2-acetamido glycosyl donors is the formation of a stable and unreactive oxazoline that decreases the yield of these reactions significantly. As an effort to prevent oxazoline formation during glycosylation reactions, we protected the N–H of the acetamido group within a 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-1-thio-β- d -glucoside with one of four different protecting groups. These groups were either 2-methylenenapthyl, 4-methoxybenzyl, 3,4-dimethoxybenzyl or 2,4,6-trimethoxybenzyl. The resulting N -alkylacetamides were then used in glycosylation reactions with ethanol as a model acceptor. We observed that the ethyl glycosides obtained in each case were obtained with exclusive β-selectivity without the formation of oxazoline sideproducts. The resulting products were then used to screen conditions for protecting group removal.

The $\rho$ spectral function at finite temperature calculated using the real-time formalism of thermal field theory is used to evaluate the low mass dilepton spectra. The analytic structure of the $\rho$ propagator is studied and contributions to the dilepton yield in the region below the bare $\rho$ peak from the different cuts in the spectral function are discussed. The space-time integrated yield shows significant enhancement in the region below the bare $\rho$ peak in the invariant mass spectra. It is argued that the variation of the inverse slope of the transverse mass ($M_T$) distribution can be used as an efficient tool to predict the presence of two different phases of the matter during the evolution of the system. Sensitivity of the effective temperature obtained from the slopes of the $M_T$ spectra to the medium effects are studied.

The budding yeast protein Sum1 is a transcription factor that associates with the histone deacetylase Hst1p or, in its absence, with Sir2p to form repressed chromatin. In this study, SUM1 has been identified as an allele-specific dosage suppressor of mutations in the major alpha-tubulin-coding gene TUB1. When cloned in a 2mu vector, SUM1 suppressed the cold-sensitive and benomyl-hypersensitive phenotypes associated with the tub1-1 mutation. The suppression was Hst1p- and Sir2p-independent, suggesting that it was not mediated by deacetylation events associated with Sum1p when it functions along with its known partner histone deacetylases. This protein was confined to the nucleus, but did not colocalize with the microtubules nor did it bind to alpha- or beta-tubulin. Cells deleted of SUM1 showed hypersensitivity to benomyl and cold-sensitive growth, phenotypes exhibited by mutants defective in microtubule function and cytoskeletal defects. These observations suggest that Sum1p is a novel regulator of microtubule function. We propose that as a dosage suppressor, Sum1p promotes the formation of microtubules by increasing the availability of the alphabeta-heterodimer containing the mutant alpha-tubulin subunit.

We present a simple calculation of the nucleon self-energy in nuclear matter at finite temperature in a relativistic framework, using the real-time thermal field theory. The imaginary parts of one-loop graphs are identified with discontinuities across the unitary and the Landau cuts. We find that in general both the cuts contribute significantly to the spectral function in the region of (virtual) nucleon mass usually considered, even though the unitary cut is ignored in the literature. Furthermore, our relativistic spectral function differs from the one in nonrelativistic approximation, used in some earlier calculations.

We study the interaction of the octet of vector mesons with the decuplet of baryons using Lagrangians of the hidden gauge theory for vector interactions. The unitary amplitudes in coupled channels develop poles that can be associated with some known baryonic resonances, while there are predictions for new ones at the energy frontier of the experimental research. The work offers guidelines on how to search for these resonances., B. X. Sun would like to thank Li-Sheng Geng and R. Molina for useful discussions. This work is partly supported by DGICYT contract number FIS2006-03438. This research is part of the EU Integrated Infrastructure Initiative Hadron Physics Project under contract number RII3-CT-2004-506078. B. X. Sun acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant number 10775012.

We consider the two-point function of nucleon current in nuclear matter and write a QCD sum rule to analyse the residue of the nucleon pole as a function of nuclear density. The nucleon self-energy needed for the sum rule is taken as input from calculations using phenomenological NN potential. Our result shows a decrease in the residue with increasing nuclear density, as is known to be the case with similar quantities.

We derive a form of spectral representations for all bosonic and fermionic propagators in the real-time formulation of field theory at finite temperature and chemical potential. Besides being simple and symmetrical between the bosonic and the fermionic types, these representations depend explicitly on analytic functions only. This last property allows a simple evaluation of loop integrals in the energy variables over propagators in this form, even in presence of chemical potentials, which is not possible over their conventional form.

The ratio of transverse momentum distribution of thermal photons to dilepton has been evaluated. It is observed that this ratio reaches a plateau beyond a certain value of transverse momentum. We argue that this ratio can be used to estimate the initial temperature of the system by selecting the transverse momentum and invariance mass windows judiciously. It is demonstrated that if the radial flow is large then the plateau disappears and hence a deviation from the plateau can be used as an indicator of large radial flow. The sensitivity of the results to various input parameters has been studied.

We calculate the equation of state of nuclear matter based on the general analysis of the grand canonical partition function in the $S$-matrix framework. In addition to the low mass stable particles and their two-body scattering channels considered earlier, the calculation includes systematically all the higher mass particles and their exited states as well as the scattering channels formed by any number of these species. We estimate the latter contribution by resonances in all the channels. The resulting model-independent virial series for pressure gets substantial contribution from the heavy particles and the channels containing them. The series converges for larger values of baryon density than found earlier., Comment: Version to appear in PRC, Rapid Communications

Electromagnetic properties provide information about the structure of strongly interacting systems and allow for independent tests of hadronic models. The radiative decays of the Δ*(1700) and Λ*(1520) are studied, which appear dynamically generated in a coupled channel approach from the rescattering of the (3/2+) decuplet of baryons with the (0−) octet of pseudoscalar mesons. The radiative decays are predicted from the well-known couplings of the photon to the mesons and hadrons which constitute these resonances in the dynamical picture.

Theoretical calculation of transverse momentum($p_T$) distribution of thermal photons and dileptons originating from ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions suffer from several uncertainties since the evaluation of these spectra needs various inputs which are not yet known unambiguously. In the present work the ratio of the $p_T$ spectra of thermal photons to lepton pairs has been evaluated and it is shown that the ratio is insensitive to some of these parameters., Comment: Figs replaced

We study the coupling of the Lambda(1520)= Lambda* resonance to the \bar K* vector meson and nucleon. This coupling is not directly measured from the resonance decay, but is expected to be important in hyperon production reactions, in particular for the exotic Theta+ production. We compute the coupling in two different schemes, one in the chiral unitary model where the Lambda* is dominated by the quasibound state of mesons and baryons, and the other in the quark model where the resonance is a p-wave excitation in the three valence quarks. Although it is possible to construct both models such that they reproduce the \bar K N and pi Sigma decays, there is a significant difference between the Lambda* \bar K* N couplings in the two models. In the chiral unitary model $|g_{\Lambda^*\bar{K}^* N}| \sim 1.5$, while in the quark model $|g_{\Lambda^*\bar{K}^* N}| \sim 10$. The difference of the results stems from the different structure of the Lambda* in both models, and hence, an experimental determination of this coupling would shed light on the nature of the resonance.

In this study the effects of different types of wall protrusions on microfluidic mixing are studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Two new protrusions, single first bracket protrusions and double opposite first bracket protrusions (DOFBPs), are conceptualized, evaluated through CFD simulations and compared to protrusions having standard geometrical shapes, e.g. rectangular protrusions, triangular protrusions and semicircular protrusions. In the range of Reynolds numbers covered in this study, the microchannel having an opposed T-junction and DOFBPs is found to provide good mixing. A hybrid approach relying on the modification of microfluidic junctions as well as wall protrusions for enhancing microfluidic mixing is also evaluated. The microchannel based on the hybrid approach of an OA 10°-20°-165° WY-junction and DOFBPs is also found to provide very good mixing for a wide range of Reynolds numbers.

A recently developed nonperturbative chiral approach to dynamically generate the 3/2{sup -} baryon resonances has been extended to investigate the radiative decays {lambda}*(1520){yields}{gamma}{lambda}(1116) and {lambda}*(1520){yields}{gamma}{sigma}{sup 0}(1193). We show that the {lambda}*(1520) decay into {gamma}{lambda} is an ideal test for the need of extra components of the resonance beyond those provided by the chiral approach since the largest meson-baryon components give no contribution to this decay. The case is different for {gamma}{sigma} decay, where the theory agrees with experiment, though the large uncertainties of these data call for more precise measurements. Some estimates of the weight of the needed genuine resonance component are made.

Medium modification of pion form factor has been evaluated in asymmetric nuclear matter. It is shown that both the shape and the pole position of the pion form factor in dense asymmetric nuclear matter is different from its vacuum counterpart with $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing. This is due to the density and asymmetry dependent $\rho$-$\omega$ mixing which could even dominate over its vacuum counterpart in matter. Effect of the in-medium pion factor on experimental observables {\it e.g.}, invariant mass distribution of lepton pairs has been demonstrated., Comment: Final Version to appear in Jour. Phys. G

We study the � (1520) resonance in a coupled-channel approach involving the π� (1385) ,K� (1530), ¯ KN, and π� channels. Implementing unitarity in coupled channels, we make an analysis of the relative importance of the different mechanisms that contribute to the dynamical structure of this resonance. From experimental information on some partial wave amplitudes and constraints imposed by unitarity, we get a comprehensive description of the amplitudes and hence the couplings to the different channels. We test these amplitudes in different reactions like K − p → �π π, γp → K + K − p, γp → K + π 0 π 0 � ,a ndπ − p → K 0 K − p and find a fair

We study the coupling of the Lambda(1520)= Lambda* resonance to the \bar K* vector meson and nucleon. This coupling is not directly measured from the resonance decay, but is expected to be important in hyperon production reactions, in particular for the exotic Theta+ production. We compute the coupling in two different schemes, one in the chiral unitary model where the Lambda* is dominated by the quasibound state of mesons and baryons, and the other in the quark model where the resonance is a p-wave excitation in the three valence quarks. Although it is possible to construct both models such that they reproduce the \bar K N and pi Sigma decays, there is a significant difference between the Lambda* \bar K* N couplings in the two models. In the chiral unitary model $|g_{\Lambda^*\bar{K}^* N}| \sim 1.5$, while in the quark model $|g_{\Lambda^*\bar{K}^* N}| \sim 10$. The difference of the results stems from the different structure of the Lambda* in both models, and hence, an experimental determination of this coupling would shed light on the nature of the resonance.

The Λ(1520) resonance is generated dynamically in a unitary coupled channel framework with the πΣ* and KⅪ* channels in s‐wave and πΣ and KN channels in d‐wave. The dynamics of this resonance close to and above threshold is then tested through the reactions K− p → ππΛ and a good agreement with the experimentally measured cross section is observed.

We study the Λ(1520) resonance in a coupled channel approach involving the πΣ(1385), KⅪ(1530), KN and πΣ channels. Implementing unitarity in coupled channels, we make an analysis of the relative importance of the different mechanisms which contribute to the dynamical structure of this resonance. From experimental information on some partial wave amplitudes and constraints imposed by unitarity, we get a comprehensive description of the amplitudes and hence the couplings to the different channels. We test these amplitudes in different reactions like K−p → Λππ, γp → K+K−p, γp → K+π0π0Λ and π−p → K0K−p and find a fair agreement with the experimental data.

We study $S$-wave interactions of the baryon decuplet with the octet of pseudoscalar mesons using the lowest order chiral Lagrangian. We find two bound states in the SU(3) limit corresponding to the octet and decuplet representations. These are found to split into eight different trajectories in the complex plane when the SU(3) symmetry is broken gradually. Finally, we are able to provide a reasonable description for a good number of 4-star ${{3/2}}^-$ resonances listed by the Particle Data Group. In particular, the $\Xi(1820)$, the $\Lambda(1520)$ and the $\Sigma(1670)$ states are well reproduced. We predict a few other resonances and also evaluate the couplings of the observed resonances to the various channels from the residues at the poles of the scattering matrix from where partial decay widths into different channels can be evaluated., Comment: Contribution to the HADRON05 Conference, Rio de Janeiro, September 2005

We study the $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520){D}_{03}$ in a chiral coupled channel approach. This resonance appears to be dynamically generated from the interaction of the decuplet of baryons and the octet of mesons in s wave, and its treatment is improved here with the phenomenological inclusion of the $\overline{K}N$ and $\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\Sigma}$ channels in d wave. Since the most important building block in $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520)$ is the $\ensuremath{\pi}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{*}(1385){P}_{13}$ channel, we study the ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\pi}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{*}(1385)({\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}\ensuremath{\Lambda})$ reaction in the region of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520)$ and above, and compare the results with recent experimental data. With the coupling of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520)$ to the $\ensuremath{\pi}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{*}$ channel predicted by the theory, we find a cross section in good agreement with the data. There is also agreement for the invariant mass distributions which show a neat peak for ${\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{*}(1385)$ in the $({\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}\ensuremath{\Lambda})$ spectrum. Predictions are made of a strong $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520)$ resonant peak of the cross section, as a function of the ${K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ momentum, in the region below the measured data, which, if confirmed experimentally, would give stronger support to the idea of $\ensuremath{\Lambda}(1520)$ as a dynamically generated resonance.

In this talk I look into three different topics, addressing first the possibility that the $\Theta^+$ is a bound state of $K \pi N$, exploiting the results of this study to find out the contribution of two meson and one baryon components in the baryon antidecuplet and in the third place I present results on a new resonant exotic baryonic state which appears as dynamically generated by the Weinberg Tomozawa $\Delta K$ interaction., Comment: Talk at the International Workshop PENTAQUARK04

Thermal photon emission rates due to meson-nucleon interactions have been evaluated. An exhaustive set of reactions involving $p(\overline{p}),$ $n(\mathrm{n\ifmmode \bar{}\else \={}\fi{}}),$ $\ensuremath{\rho},$ $\ensuremath{\omega},$ ${a}_{1},$ $\ensuremath{\pi},$ and $\ensuremath{\eta}$ is seen to provide a sizable contribution to the emission rate of photons from hot hadronic matter. Contributions from the decays of baryonic resonances are found to be negligibly small.

We consider two methods to find the effective parameters of the pion traversing a nuclear medium. One is the first order chiral perturbation theoretic evaluation of the pion pole contribution to the two-point function of the axial-vector current. The other is the exact, first order virial expansion of the pion self-energy. We find that, although the results of chiral perturbation theory are not valid at normal nuclear density, those from the virial expansion may be reliable at such density. The latter predicts both the mass-shift and the in-medium decay width of the pion to be small, of about a few MeV., 9 Pages RevTex, 3 eps figures

The variation of average transverse mass of identified hadrons with charge multiplicity have been studied for AGS, SPS and RHIC energies. The observation of a plateau in the average transverse mass for multiplicities corresponding to SPS energies is attributed to the formation of a co-existence phase of quark gluon plasma and hadrons. A subsequent rise for RHIC energies may indicate a deconfined phase in the initial state. Several possibilities which can affect the average transverse mass are discussed. Constraints on the initial temperature and thermalization time have been put from the various experimental data available at SPS energies., 4 pages and 2 figures, title changed and draft modified

We study the effects of in-medium hadronic properties on shadowing in photon-nucleus interactions in Glauber model as well as in the multiple scattering approach. A reasonable agreement with the experimental data is obtained in a scenario of downward spectral shift of the hadrons. Shadowing is found to be insensitive to the broadening of the spectral functions. An impact parameter dependent analysis of shadowing might shed more light on the role of in-medium properties of hadrons.

A recently proposed scheme is used to saturate the spectral side of the QCD sum rules derived from the thermal, two-point correlation functions of the vector and the axial-vector currents. At low temperature, it constructs the spectral representation from all the one-loop Feynman diagrams for the two-point functions. The old saturation scheme treats incorrectly some of these contributions. We end up with the familiar QCD sum rules obtained from the difference of the two corresponding vacuum correlation functions. The possibility of obtaining new sum rules in other media is discussed.

We consider the thermal correlation functions of vector and axial-vector currents and evaluate corrections to the vector and axial-vector meson pole terms to one loop in chiral perturbation theory. As expected, the pole positions do not shift to leading order in temperature. But the residues decrease with temperature.

The space-time evolution of the hot and dense matter formed after the collisions of heavy nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies is investigated using (3+1) dimensional hydrodynamical models. The effects of the spectral shift of the hadronic properties are incorporated in the equation of state (EOS) of the evolving matter. In-medium shift of hadronic properties are considered for Quantum Hadrodynamics (QHD) and universal scaling scenarios. It is found that the EOS for the hadronic matter for universal scaling of hadronic masses (except pseudoscalar mesons) is similar to the recent lattice results. We observe that the space-time volume of the hadronic matter at the freeze-out is considerably different from the one when medium effects on the hadrons are ignored. The sensitivity of the results on the initial radial velocity profile is investigated. The transverse mass spectra of pions and protons of NA49 collaboration are analyzed., Total 17 pages with 18 figures

We compare the photon emission rates from hot hadronic matter with in-medium mass shift and Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). It is observed that the WA98 data can be well reproduced by hadronic initial state with initial temperature $\sim 200$ MeV if the universal scaling of temperature dependent hadronic masses are assumed and the evolution of temperature with time is taken from transport model or (3+1) dimensional hydrodynamics. The data can also be reproduced by QGP initial state with similar initial temperature and non-zero initial radial velocity., Comment: Talk given in the International Nuclear Physics Conference, at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, during July 30 - August 3, 2001

We examine the problem of constructing spectral representations for two point correlation functions, needed to write down the QCD sum rules in the medium. We suggest constructing them from the Feynman diagrams for the correlation functions. As an example we use this procedure to write the QCD sum rules for the nucleon current at finite temperature.

We estimate the photon and dilepton emission rates from hot hadronic matter with in-medium spectral shift and broadening of vector mesons. It is observed that both the WA98 photon data and CERES/NA45 dilepton data can be well reproduced with similar initial conditions. The freeze-out condition has been constrained by the transverse mass spectra of pions and protons measured by the NA49 collaboration. We argue that simultaneous measurement of the $p_T$ spectra of single photons as well as invariant mass distribution of dileptons is crucial to understand the in-medium spectral function of the vector mesons., Title and contents changed

High energy photon emission rate from matter created in Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies is evaluated. The evolution of matter from the initial state up to freeze-out has been treated within the framework of (3+1) dimensional hydrodynamic expansion. We observe that the photon spectra measured by the WA98 experiment are well reproduced with hard QCD photons and photons from a thermal source with initial temperature ~200 MeV. The effects of the spectral changes of hadrons with temperature on the photon emission rate and on the equation of state are studied. Photon yield for Au+Au collisions at RHIC energies is also estimated. High energy photon emission rate from matter created in Pb + Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies is evaluated. The evolution of matter from the initial state up to freeze-out has been treated within the framework of (3+1) dimensional hydrodynamic expansion. We observe that the photon spectra measured by the WA98 experiment are well reproduced with hard QCD photons and photons from a thermal source with initial temperature ~ 200 MeV. The effects of the spectral changes of hadrons with temperature on the photon emission rate and on the equation of state are studied. Photon yield for Au + Au collisions at RHIC energies is also estimated.

The effects of the variation of vector meson masses and decay widths on photon production from hot strongly interacting matter formed after Pb + Pb and S + Au collisions at CERN SPS energies are considered. It has been shown that the present photon spectra measured by WA80 and WA98 Collaborations can not distinguish between the formation of quark matter and hadronic matter in the initial state.

The formulation of the real and virtual photon production rate from strongly interacting matter is presented in the framework of finite temperature field theory. The changes in the hadronic spectral function induced by temperature are discussed within the ambit of the Walecka type model, gauged linear and non-linear sigma models, hidden local symmetry approach and QCD sum rule approach. Possibility of observing the direct thermal photon and lepton pair from quark gluon plasma has been contrasted with those from hot hadronic matter with and without medium effects for various mass variation scenarios. At SPS energies, in-medium effects of different magnitude on the hadronic properties for the Walecka model, Brown-Rho scaling and Nambu scaling scenarios are conspicuously visible through the low invariant mass distribution of dilepton and transverse momentum spectra of photon. However, at RHIC energies the thermal photon (dilepton) spectra originating from Quark Gluon Plasma overshines those from hadronic matter for large transverse momentum (invariant mass) irrespective of the models used for evaluating the finite temperature effects on the hadronic properties. It is thus expected that both at RHIC and LHC energies the formation of Quark Gluon Plasma in the initial stages may indeed turn out to be a realistic scenario., Text revised, 3 figures added

The abundance and size distribution of quark nuggets (QN), formed a few microseconds after the big bang due to first order QCD phase transition in the early universe, has been estimated. It appears that stable QNs could be a viable candidate for cosmological dark matter. The evolution of baryon inhomogeneity due to evaporated (unstable) QNs are also examined., To appear in Physical Review D

We calculate the size distribution of quark nuggets, which could be formed due to first order QCD phase transition in the early universe. We find that there are a large number of stable Quark Nuggets which could be a viable candidate for cosmological dark matter., Comment: To appear in Quark Matter 99 proceedings