Fidelity of photon interferometry for recording the evolution of a nascent quark-gluon plasma.
The fidelity of two-photon intensity interferometry for reflecting the dynamics of a nascent quark-gluon plasma formed in a high energy nucleus-nucleus collision is examined. A (3+1)-dimensional expansion of the plasma as well as a (1+1)-dimensional expansion according to Bjorken hydrodynamics, both with a first order phase transition, are considered. The correlation of high transverse-momentum photons is shown to be a precision tool for the investigation of the space-time evolution of the high-density QCD plasma. In particular, the longitudinal correlation function, which depicts the time development of the system, is seen to have its origin in two sources: one corresponding to the early plasma phase and the second to the later stages. This aspect may help identify thermal photons according to their time of birth'' during evolution.

title: How relativistic heavy ion collisions can help us understand the universe
abstract: We discuss the anthropic principle and its implications for our existence and the physical laws which govern the universe. Several amazing coincidences which provide conditions necessary for creation of life suggest that the "laws of nature" are not uniquely determined. The idea that our universe is only one among a multitude of universes with different physical laws, as predicted by the theory of chaotic cosmic inflation, provides a logically simple, but speculative resolution of the anthropic principle. An important insight of modern quantum field theory is that the physical laws are not only determined by symmetry principles, but also by the nature of the vacuum state. Experiments involving collisions of relativistic heavy ions provide the clearest tests of the hypothesis that properties of particles and forces can be modified by a change in the vacuum state. We outline the goals of these experiments and briefly review their current status.

title: High-energy photons from passage of jets through Quark-Gluon plasma.
abstract: We calculate the production of high-energy photons from Compton scattering and annihilation of a quark jet passing through a quark gluon plasma produced in a relativistic heavy ion collision. The contributions are large and reflect the momentum distribution of the jets and the initial conditions of the plasma.

title: Photon interferometry of Au+Au collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider.
abstract: We calculate the two-body correlation function of direct photons produced in central Au+Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider. Our calculation includes contributions from the early preequilibrium phase in which photons are produced via hard parton scatterings as well as radiation of photons from a thermalized quark-gluon plasma and the subsequent expanding hadron gas. We find that high energy photon interferometry provides a faithful probe of the details of the space-time evolution and of the early reaction stages of the system.

title: Photons and Dileptons at LHC
abstract: We discuss real and virtual photon sources in heavy ion collisions and present results for dilepton yields in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC at intermediate and large transverse momentum p_T.

title: Supercooling and final-state effects on dilepton spectra.
abstract: We consider two problems associated with the production of dileptons during collisions between heavy nuclei at the Brookhaven Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider energy. One is the difference in dilepton yield between an idealized Maxwell construction of phase coexistence and a dynamical phase transition with finite nucleation and phase conversion rates. The other is the contribution from dilepton-producing reactions involving free-streaming hadrons in the final state. We find that the mass spectrum in the range 2${\mathit{m}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\pi}}}$M2 GeV is dominated by the mixed phase and the final hadron phase, is somewhat sensitive to the degree of supercooling, but is remarkably insensitive to the ``freeze-out'' temperature which delineates the passage from local thermal equilibrium to free streaming.

title: Microchips as precision quantum-electrodynamic probes.
abstract: We show that QED fluctuations for present metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor microcircuit devices are substantial and thus cannot be ignored. For example, the Casimir energy of a gate-region capacitor is typically (1/10) of the electrostatic energy. Measurement of their electronic transport properties is suggested as a tool to learn about some nonperturbative aspects of QED which cannot be reached via high-energy or atomic physics.