"The Ying and Yang of Particle Production in the Universe" by Dr. Claudia Ratti, University Torino and Dr. Rene Bellwied, University Houston

Monday 30 Apr 2012, 14:15 → 15:45 Europe/Berlin

3344, Seminarroom T30 (Physics Department, TUM)

ABSTRACT Recent lattice QCD calculations, at physical pion masses and in the continuum limit, have revealed that non-diagonal quark correlators above the QCD phase transition are finite up to about twice the critical temperature. Since the transition from free partonic to hadronic degrees of freedom is merely an analytic cross-over, it is likely that, in the temperature regime between 1-2 Tc, a mixed phase of partons and hadronic bound states can coexist. In the first part of the talk, we present the most recent lattice data from the Wuppertal-Budapest collaboration and a comparison to PNJL model calculations beyond mean-field. In the second part of the talk, we discuss possible experimental evidence and its physical interpretation. The energies achievable at RHIC and the LHC in heavy ion collisions have proven sufficient to generate the necessary collective partonic phase, which might make it possible, for the first time in a laboratory, to follow the production of the basic building blocks of nature, namely baryons and mesons, during the early phase of the universe.