We predict the transverse momentum (p T ) dependence of elliptic flow of thermal photons for Au Au collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. We model the system hydrodynamically, with a thermalized quark-gluon plasma at early times followed by hadronization and decoupling. Photons are emitted throughout the expansion history. Contrary to hadron elliptic flow, which increases monotonically with p T , the elliptic flow v 2 p T of thermal photons is predicted to first rise and then fall again. Photon elliptic flow at high p T reflects the quark momentum anisotropy at early times when it is small, while at low p T it mirrors the large pion momentum anisotropy during the late hadronic emission stage. An interesting structure is predicted at intermediate p T 0:4 GeV=c, where photon elliptic flow reflects the momenta and the (compared to pions) reduced v 2 of heavy vector mesons in the late hadronic phase.

This writeup is a compilation of the predictions for the forthcoming Heavy Ion Program at the Large Hadron Collider, as presented at the CERN Theory Institute ‘Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC—Last Call for Predictions’, held from 14th May to 10th June 2007.

Problem solving is a complex process valuable in everyday life and crucial for learning in the STEM fields. To support the development of problem-solving skills it is important for researchers and curriculum developers to have practical tools that can measure the difference between novice and expert problem-solving performance in authentic classroom work. It is also useful if such tools can be employed by instructors to guide their pedagogy. We describe the design, development, and testing of a simple rubric to assess written solutions to problems given in undergraduate introductory physics courses. In particular, we present evidence for the validity, reliability, and utility of the instrument. The rubric identifies five general problem-solving processes and defines the criteria to attain a score in each: organizing problem information into a Useful Description, selecting appropriate principles (Physics Approach), applying those principles to the specific conditions in the problem (Specific Application of Physics), using Mathematical Procedures appropriately, and displaying evidence of an organized reasoning pattern (Logical Progression).

The inability of otherwise successful dynamical models to reproduce the Hanbury-Brown-Twiss (HBT) radii extracted from two-particle correlations measured at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is known as the RHIC HBT Puzzle. Most comparisons between models and experiment exploit the fact that for Gaussian sources the HBT radii agree with certain combinations of the space-time widths of the source that can be directly computed from the emission function without having to evaluate, at significant expense, the two-particle correlation function. We here study the validity of this approach for realistic emission function models, some of which exhibit significant deviations from simple Gaussian behavior. By Fourier transforming the emission function, we compute the two-particle correlation function, and fit it with a Gaussian to partially mimic the procedure used for measured correlation functions. We describe a novel algorithm to perform this Gaussian fit analytically. We find that for realistic hydrodynamic models the HBT radii extracted from this procedure agree better with the data than the values previously extracted from the space-time widths of the emission function. Although serious discrepancies between the calculated and the measured HBT radii remain, we show that a more apples-to-apples comparison of models with data can play an important role in any eventually successful theoretical description of RHIC HBT data.

The combination of modern computing power, the interactivity of web applications, and the flexibility of object-oriented programming may finally be sufficient to create computer coaches that can help students develop metacognitive problem-solving skills, an important competence in our rapidly changing technological society. However, no matter how effective such coaches might be, they will only be useful if they are attractive to students. We describe the design and testing of a set of web-based computer programs that act as personal coaches to students while they practice solving problems from introductory physics. The coaches are designed to supplement regular human instruction, giving students access to effective forms of practice outside class. We present results from large-scale usability tests of the computer coaches and discuss their implications for future versions of the coaches.