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Strange Quark Nuggets are the relics of the microsecond old universe after the big bang. The universe having experienced a mini inflation of 7-e folding has gone through supercooling leading to a first order phase transition from quark to hadrons. Strange Quark Nuggets, the relics of this phase transition will constitute 12.5% or at the most 25% of the dark matter of the universe. Only 10-3 or 10-4 part of the total number of SQNs form binaries, and only some of the binaries will turn to black holes. Primordial Black Hole (PBH) as a relic is shown to be not a plausible scenario. Simultaneous observation of high energy gamma rays from SQN binaries formed from coalescence of SQNs along with black holes will be the vital cursor of this evolutionary scenario just presented.

It is entirely plausible that during the primordial quark-hadron transition, microseconds after the Big Bang, the universe may experience supercooling accompanied by mini inflation leading to a first-order phase transition from quarks to hadrons. The relics, in the form of quark nuggets expected to consist of Strange Quark Matter, with a baryon number beyond a critical value will survive. It is conjectured that color confinement turns the physical vacuum to an event horizon for quarks and gluons. The horizon can be crossed only by quantum tunnelling. The process just mentioned is the QCD counterpart of Hawking radiation from gravitational black holes. Thus, when the Hawking temperature of the quark nuggets gets turned off, tunnelling will stop and the nuggets will survive forever. The baryon number and the mass of these nuggets are derived using this theoretical format. The results agree well with the prediction using other phenomenological models. Further, the variation of Hawking temperature as a function of baryon number and mass of the nugget mimicks chiral phase transition, somewhat similar to the QCD phase transition just described. Finally the strange quark nuggets may well be the candidates of baryonic dark matter., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1505.03473, arXiv:1710.04703

There are at least three sources of cosmic quarks in the universe. One, the quark nuggets which may survive beyond a certain baryon number during the phase transition from quarks to hadrons microseconds after the big bang. These quark nuggets can very well be candidate of cold dark matter and these nuggets consist of strange quarks. Second, the interior of the neutron star may well be made of quarks due to very very high pressure. It is further shown that the interior of heavy neutron star, recently discovered $\approx$ 2M$_{\odot}$, with an appropriate equation of state, can also be made of quark core. Finally, using the property of colour entanglement among quarks it is entirely possible to have free orphan quarks roaming around in the cosmos. Some better understanding of dark energy and dark matter is possible with these entangled orphan quarks., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:hep-ph/0307366, arXiv:1505.03473, arXiv:hep-ph/0602202

The early stage of high multiplicity pp, pA and AA collider is represented by a nearly quarkless, hot, deconfined pure gluon plasma. According to pure Yang-Mills Lattice Gauge Theory, this hot pure glue matter undergoes, at a high temperature, $T_c = 270$ MeV, a first order phase transition into a confined Hagedorn-GlueBall fluid. These new scenario should be characterized by a suppression of high $p_T$ photons and dileptons, baryon suppression and enhanced strange meson production. We propose to observe this newly predicted class of events at LHC and RHIC., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

The possibility that the relics of quark hadron phase transition in the microsecond old universe, the quark nuggets, may well be reasonable candidates for cold dark matter is critically examined.

It is entirely plausible under reasonable condition, that a first order QCD phase transition occurred from quarks to hadrons when the universe was about a microsecond old. Relics, if there be any, after the quark hadron phase transition are the most deciding signatures of the phase transition. It is shown in this paper that the quark nuggets, possible relics of first order QCD phase transitions with baryon number larger than $10^{43}$ will survive the entire history of the universe uptil now and can be considered as candidates for the cold dark matter. The spin down core of the neutron star on the high density low temperature end of the phase diagramme initiates transition from hadrons to quarks. As the star spins down, the size of the core goes on increasing. Recently discovered massive Pulsar PSRJ 1614-2230 with a mass of 1.97$\pm$0.04 $M_{\odot}$ most likely has a strongly interacting quark core. What possible observables can there be from these neutron stars?

We analyse the recently available experimental data on direct photon productions from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV RHIC and from Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=2.76 TeV LHC energies. The transverse momentum ($p_T$) distributions have been evaluated with the assumption of an initial quark gluon plasma phase at temperatures $T_i$=404 and 546 MeV with initial thermalisation times $\tau_i$=0.2 and 0.1 fm/c respectively for RHIC and LHC energies. The theoretical evalutions agree reasonably well with the experimental observations. The thermal window for the LHC energy is justified through the ratio of the $p_T$ spectra of thermal photons to dileptons., Comment: 7 pages, 8figures

In the Israel-Stewart's 2nd order hydrodynamics, a viscous effect on dilepton emission from a QGP medium is investigated. Dileptons are strongly affected by QGP viscosity. Large invariant mass dileptons, due to their lower velocity, are less affected by viscosity than the low invariant mass dileptons. We also show that the ratio of photon to dilepton is sensitive to the viscosity and can serve as a viscometer for QGP., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

We simulate direct photon production in evolution of viscous QGP medium. Photons from Compton and annihilation processes are considered. Viscous effect on photon production is very strong and reliable simulation is possible only in a limited $p_T$ range. For minimally viscous fluid $\eta/s$=0.08), direct photons can be reliably computed only up to $p_T \leq$ 1.3 GeV. With reduced viscosity ($\eta/s$=0.04), the limit increases to $p_T \leq $2GeV., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

The effects of non-zero baryonic chemical potential on the drag and diffusion coefficients of heavy quarks propagating through a baryon rich quark gluon plasma have been studied. The nuclear suppression factor, $R_{\mathrm AA}$ for non-photonic single electron spectra resulting from the semileptonic decays of hadrons containing heavy flavours have been evaluated for low energy collisions. The role of non-zero baryonic chemical potential on $R_{\mathrm AA}$ has been highlighted., Comment: One LaTex file for text and 7 eps files for figures (to be published in Phys. Rev. C)

The major aim of nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC is to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark gluon plasma (QGP), formed in extreme conditions of temperature and energy density. We give a brief overview of the experimental program and discuss the signatures and observables for a detailed study of QGP matter., Comment: 15 pages, Invited article for the volume on LHC physics to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of the Indian National Science Academy, Edited by Amitava Datta, Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya and Amitava Raychaudhuri (Jan 2009)

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.

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

It is shown that the ratio of transverse momentum (p_T) distribution of thermal photons to dileptons produced in heavy ion collisions reaches a plateau above p_T=1 GeV. We argue that the value of the ratio in the plateau region can be used to estimate the initial temperature., Comment: 2 pages with 2 eps figures

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 disappear and hence a deviation from the plateau can be used as an indicator of large radial flow. The sensitivity of the results on various input parameters has been studied., Comment: 9 pages with 11 eps figures

The present day astrophysical observations indicate that the universe is composed of a large amount of dark energy (DE) responsible for an accelerated expansion of the universe, along with a sizeable amount of cold dark matter (CDM), responsible for structure formation. The explanations for the origin or the nature of both CDM and DE seem to require ideas beyond the standard model of elementary particle interactions. Here we show that CDM and DE both can arise from the standard principles of strong interaction physics and quantum entanglement., Comment: 5 pages manuscript, To be published in proceedings of Quark Matter 2005

The transverse momentum distribution of the direct photons measured by the PHENIX collaboration in $Au + Au$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV/A has been analyzed. It has been shown that the data can be reproduced reasonably well assuming a deconfined state of thermalized quarks and gluons with initial temperature more than the transition temperature for deconfinement inferred from lattice QCD. The value of the initial temperature depends on the equation of state of the evolving matter. The sensitivities of the results on various input parameters have been studied. The effects of the modifications of hadronic properties at non-zero temperature have been discussed., Comment: minor modifications in the text, accepted for publication

It is now believed that the universe is composed of a small amount of the normal luminous matter, a substantial amount of matter (Cold Dark Matter: CDM) which is non-luminous and a large amount of smooth energy (Dark Energy: DE). Both CDM and DE seem to require ideas beyond the standard model of particle interactions. In this work, we argue that CDM and DE can arise entirely from the standard principles of strong interaction physics out of the same mechanism., Comment: Manuscript prepared for SQM 2004, To appear in J. Phys. G as special issue article

The partonic energy loss has been calculated taking both the hard and soft contributions for all the $2 \to 2$ processes, revealing the importance of the individual channels. Cancellation of the intermediate separation scale has been exhibited. Subtleties related to the identical final state partons have properly been taken into account. The estimated collisional loss is compared with its radiative counter part. We show that there exists a critical energy ($E_c$) below which the collisional loss is more than its radiative counterpart. In addition, we present closed form formulas for both the collision probabilities and the stopping power ($dE/dx$), Comment: revised version, section added, 9pages with 5 figures

The productions of muon pairs from the decay of heavy quarkonia have been evaluated for different centrality of the nuclear collisions at LHC energies. The effects of the various comover scenarios on the survival probability of the heavy quarkonia have been considered. The effects of shadowing and comover suppressions on the dilepton spectra originating from the decays of J/\psi is found to be substantial. The dilepton yield from the thermal J/\psi has also been estimated and found to be small., Comment: 16 pages LaTeX, 7 Figures included

We propose intensity interferometry with identical lepton pairs as an efficient tool for the estimation of the source size of the expanding hot zone produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions. This can act as a complementary method to two photon interferometry. The correlation function of two electrons with the same helicity has been evaluated for RHIC energies. The thermal shift of the rho meson mass has negligible effects on the HBT radii., Comment: 5 pages and 2 figures

Recent astrophysical observations indicate that the universe is composed of a large amount of dark energy (DE) responsible for an accelerated expansion of the universe, along with a sizeable amount of cold dark matter (CDM), responsible for structure formation. At present, the explanations for the origin or the nature of both CDM and DE seem to require ideas beyond the standard model of elementary particle interactions. Here, for the first time, we show that CDM and DE can arise entirely from the standard principles of strong interaction physics and quantum entanglement. Quantitative agreement with the present data obtains without the need for any adjustable parameters., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, To appear in Phys. Lett. B

The parameters obtained from the theoretical analysis of the single photon spectra observed by the WA98 collaboration at SPS energies have been used to evaluate the two photon correlation functions. The single photon spectra and the two photon correlations at RHIC energies have also been evaluated, taking into account the effects of the possible spectral change of hadrons in a thermal bath. We find that the ratio $R_{side}/R_{out} \sim 1$ for SPS and $R_{side}/R_{out} <1$ for RHIC energy., Comment: text changed, figures added

We propose that the cold dark matter (CDM) is composed entirely of quark matter, arising from a cosmic quark-hadron transition. We show that compact gravitational objects, with masses around 0.5 (M_{\odot}), could have evolved out of the such CDM., Comment: 4 LateX pages with one embedded eps figure Prepared for the proceedings of QM2002. To be published in Nucl. Phys. A

We propose that the cold dark matter (CDM) is composed entirely of quark matter, arising from a cosmic quark-hadron transition. We denote this phase as "quasibaryonic", distinct from the usual baryons. We show that compact gravitational lenses, with masses around 0.5 (M_{\odot}), could have evolved out of the quasibaryonic CDM., Comment: 6 pages with one eps figure

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., Comment: Total 17 pages with 18 figures

A honeycomb detector consisting of a matrix of 96 closely packed hexagonal cells, each working as a proportional counter with a wire readout, was fabricated and tested at the CERN PS. The cell depth and the radial dimensions of the cell were small, in the range of 5-10 mm. The appropriate cell design was arrived at using GARFIELD simulations. Two geometries are described illustrating the effect of field shaping. The charged particle detection efficiency and the preshower characteristics have been studied using pion and electron beams. Average charged particle detection efficiency was found to be 98%, which is almost uniform within the cell volume and also within the array. The preshower data show that the transverse size of the shower is in close agreement with the results of simulations for a range of energies and converter thicknesses., Comment: To be published in NIM A

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 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., Comment: Title and contents changed

It has been shown recently that the values of $J_T$ and $J_L$ which appear in Eqs.(2) and (5) of the above paper and which are taken from the work of Aurenche et al are too large by a factor of 4. Correcting for this changes the Fig.~2. More-over, now the emissions from the quark matter dominate only for $p_T <$ 1 GeV/$c$. The basic result of the paper, that the upper limit of the single-photon production in the WA80 experiment is consistent with the rates for photon production at two-loop level remains valid., Comment: Corrected two-loop rates for photon production are used. Two pages, including one figure

The production of single photons in $Pb+Pb$ collisions at the CERN SPS as measured by the WA98 experiment is analysed. A quark gluon plasma is assumed to be formed initially, which expands, cools, hadronizes, and undergoes freeze-out. A rich hadronic equation of state is used and the transverse expansion of the interacting system is taken into account. The recent estimates of photon production in quark-matter (at two loop level) along with the dominant reactions in the hadronic matter leading to photons are used. About half of the radiated photons are seen to have a thermal origin. The same treatment and the initial conditions provide a very good description to hadronic spectra measured by several groups and the intermediate mass dileptons measured by the NA50 experiment, lending a strong support to the conclusion that quark gluon plasma has been formed in these collisions., Comment: 4 pages including 4 figures. (Talk given at QM 2001). Corrected two-loop rates for photon production are used

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., Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. C (Rapid Communications)

The production of single photons in $Pb+Pb$ collisions at the CERN SPS as measured by the WA98 experiment is analysed. A quark gluon plasma is assumed to be formed initially, which expands, cools, hadronizes, and undergoes freeze-out. A rich hadronic equation of state is used and the transverse expansion of the interacting system is taken into account. The recent estimates of photon production in quark-matter (at two loop level) along with the dominant reactions in the hadronic matter leading to photons are used. About 50% of the single photons are seen to have a thermal origin. An addition of the thermal and prompt photons is seen to provide a very good description of the data. Most of the thermal photons having large transverse momenta arise from the quark-matter, which contributes dominantly through the mechanism of annihilation of quarks with scattering, and which in turn is possible only in a hot and dense plasma of quarks and gluons. The results thus confirm the formation of quark gluon plasma and the existence of this mechanism of the production of single photons., Comment: 6 pages including 3 figures. Corrected 2-loop rates for photons are used

One of the abiding mysteries in the so-called standard cosmological model is the nature of the dark matter. It is universally accepted that there is an abundance of matter in the universe which is non-luminous, due to their very weak interaction, if at all, with the other forms of matter, excepting of course the gravitational attraction. Speculations as to the nature of dark matter are numerous, often bordering on exotics, and searches for such exotic matter is a very active field of astroparticle physics at the dawn of the new century. Nevertheless, in recent years, there has been experimental evidence for at least one form of dark matter - the massive compact halo objects detected through gravitational microlensing effects proposed by Paczynski some years ago. To date, no clear consensus as to what these objects, referred to in the literature as well as in the following by the acronym MACHO, are made of; for a brief discussion of some of the suggestions, see below. In this work, we show that they find a natural explanation as leftover relics from the putative first order cosmic quark - hadron phase transition that is predicted by the standard model of particle interactions to have occurred during the microsecond epoch of the early universe.

The photon and dilepton emission rates from quark gluon plasma and hot hadronic matter have been evaluated. The in-medium modifications of the particles appearing in the internal loop of the self energy diagram are taken into account by using a phenomenological effective Lagrangian approach, Brown-Rho and Nambu scaling scenarios. We note that the in-medium effects on the low invariant mass distribution of dilepton and transverse momentum spectra of photon are clearly visible., Comment: 12 pages, one LaTeX file, four eps files

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., Comment: Text revised, 3 figures added

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

We reanalyze the production of single photons in S+Au collisions at CERN SPS to investigate: i) the consequences of using a much richer equation of state for hadrons than the one used in an earlier study by us; and, ii) to see if the recent estimates of photon production in quark-matter (at two loop level) by Aurenche et al. are consistent with the upper limit of the photon production measured by the WA80 experiment. We find that the measured upper limit is consistent with a quark hadron phase transition. The measured upper limit is also consistent with a scenario where no phase transition takes place, but where the hadronic matter reaches a density of several hadrons per unit volume; which is rather unphysical., Comment: 10 pages, including 3 figures; Submitted to Euro. Phys. Jour. C

The formalism of photon and dilepton productions in a thermal bath are discussed in the frame work of finite temperature field theory. The emission rate has been expressed in terms of the discontinuities or imaginary part of the photon self energy in the thermal bath. The photon and dilepton emissions have been computed by taking into account the in-medium modifications of the particles appearing in the internal loop of the self energy diagram using a phenomenological effective lagrangian approach. The results has been compared with the photon spectra measured by WA 98 collaboration at CERN SPS energies., Comment: One LaTex file, 7 PS files included

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., Comment: To appear in Physical Review D

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., Comment: 8 pages latex with 3 figures

We present a microscopic approach to dynamical pionisation of the hot quark-gluon matter formed in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. The time evolution of the system is described assuming that quarks undergo Brownian motion in a thermal bath provided by the gluons. The rate of hadronization as well as the time dependence of the temperature of the system are seen to be quite sensitive to the QCD $\Lambda$ parameter. Even in a non-equilibrium scenario, we find that there appears a clear hint of a first order phase transition., Comment: Revtex file with two postscript figures

Unstable particles (such as the vector mesons) have an important role to play in low mass dilepton production resulting from heavy ion collisions and this has been a subject of several investigations. Yet subtleties, such as the implications of the generalization of the Breit-Wigner formula for nonzero temperature and density, e.g. the question of collisional broadening, the role of Bose enhancement, etc., the possibility of the kinematic opening (or closing) of decay channels due to environmental effects, the problem of double counting through resonant and direct contributions, are often given insufficient emphasis. The present study attempts to point out these features using the rho and omega mesons as illustrative examples. The difference between the two versions of the Vector Meson Dominance Model in the present context is also presented. Effects of non-zero temperature and density, through vector meson masses and decay widths, on dilepton spectra are studied, for concreteness within the framework of a Walecka-type model, though most of the basic issues highlighted apply to other scenarios as well., Comment: text and figures modified

Changes in the properties of the vector mesons in hot and dense hadronic matter, as produced in heavy ion collisions, lead to the intriguing possibility of the opening of the decay channel $\omega \ra \rho \pi$, for the omega meson, which is impossible in free space. This along with the channel $\omega \pi \ra \pi \pi$ would result in a decrease in its effective life-time enabling it to decay within the hot zone and act as a chronometer in contradiction to the commonly held opinion and would have implications vis a vis determination of the size of the region through pion interferometry. A new peak and a radically altered shape of the low invariant mass dilepton spectra appears due to different shift in the masses of $\rho$ and $\omega$ mesons. The Walecka model is used for the underlying calculation for the sake of illustration., Comment: To appear in Phys. ReV. C

The modifications of hadronic masses and decay widths at finite temperature and baryon density are investigated using a phenomenological model of hadronic interactions in the Relativistic Hartree Approximation. We consider an exhaustive set of hadronic reactions and vector meson decays to estimate the photon emission from hot and dense hadronic matter. The reduction in the vector meson masses and decay widths is seen to cause an enhancement in the photon production. It is observed that the effect of $\rho$-decay width on photon spectra is negligible. The effects on dilepton production from pion annihilation are also indicated., Comment: To appear in Nucl. Phys. A

We investigate the equation of state (EOS) for nuclear matter, within the framework of the Relativistic Hartree Fock (RHF) theory, with special emphasis on the role of the Pauli coupling of the vector meson $\rho$ to the nucleon vis-a-vis the eventual softening of the EOS as revealed through a substantial reduction of the incompressibility parameter ($K_0$) for symmetric nuclear matter., Comment: LaTeX file and one postscript figure

Temperature dependence of hadronic decay widths and masses are studied within the framework of an effective Lagrangian approach. At finite temperature the hadronic masses do not seem to follow a universal scaling law. Considering an exhaustive set of hadronic reactions and vector meson decays we have estimated the photon spectrum emitted from hot hadronic matter taking into account medium effects through thermal loop corrections on the hadronic decay widths and masses. An enhancement in photon emission rate is obtained when we use the in-medium masses of vector mesons in our calculations. It is observed that the effect of $\rho$ decay width on the photon spectra is negligible., Comment: changed content, added references and figures.(30 pages, Figures included). To appear in Nuclear Physics A

The relativistic Fokker Planck equation has been used to study the evolution of the quark distribution in the quark gluon phase expected to be formed in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. The effect of thermal masses for quarks and gluons is incorporated to take account of the in-medium properties. We find that the kinetic equilibrium is achieved before the system reaches the critical temperature of quark hadron phase transition. We find that chemical equilibrium is not achieved during this time. We have evaluated the electromagnetic probes of quark gluon plasma from the non-equilibrated quark gluon phase and compared them with those in completely equilibrated scenario. The hard QCD production rates for the electromagnetic ejectiles as well as the heavy quark production rates are also calculated., Comment: Submitted to Nucl. Phys. A