We present an extension of relativistic single-particle distribution function for weakly interacting particles at local thermodynamical equilibrium including spin degrees of freedom, for massive spin 1/2 particles. We infer, on the basis of the global equilibrium case, that at local thermodynamical equilibrium particles acquire a net polarization proportional to the vorticity of the inverse temperature four-vector field. The obtained formula for polarization also implies that a steady gradient of temperature entails a polarization orthogonal to particle momentum. The single-particle distribution function in momentum space extends the so-called Cooper-Frye formula to particles with spin 1/2 and allows to predict their polarization in relativistic heavy ion collisions at the freeze-out.

A quasi-particle model has been employed to describe the (2 + 1)-flavor lattice QCD equation of state with physical quark masses. The interaction part of the equation of state has been mapped to the effective fugacities of otherwise non-interacting quasi-gluons and quasi-quarks. The mapping is found to be exact for the equation of state. The model leads to non-trivial dispersion relations for quasi-partons. The dispersion relations, effective quasi-particle number densities, and trace anomaly have been investigated employing the model. A Virial expansion for the EOS has further been obtained to investigate the role of interactions in quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Finally, Debye screening in QGP has been studied employing the model. 24.85.+p; 05.20.Dd; 12.38.Mh PACS

We present a quantitative study of vorticity formation in peripheral ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at √ s NN = 200 GeV by using the ECHO-QGP numerical code, implementing relativistic dissipative hydrodynamics in the causal Israel-Stewart framework in 3 + 1 dimensions with an initial Bjorken flow profile. We consider different definitions of vorticity which are relevant in relativistic hydrodynamics. After demonstrating the excellent capabilities of our code, which proves to be able to reproduce Gubser flow up to 8 fm/c, we show that, with the initial conditions needed to reproduce the measured directed flow in peripheral collisions corresponding to an average impact parameter b = 11.6 fm and with the Bjorken flow profile for a viscous Quark Gluon Plasma with η/s = 0.1 fixed, a vorticity of the order of some 10 −2 c/fm can develop at freeze-out. The ensuing polarization of baryons does not exceed 1.4 % at midrapidity. We show that the amount of developed directed flow is sensitive to both the initial angular momentum of the plasma and its viscosity.

We have studied the dissociation of heavy quarkonium states in a hot QCD medium by investigating the medium modifications to a heavy quark potential. Our model shows that in-medium modification causes the screening of the charge in contrast to the screening of the range of the potential. We have then employed the medium-modified potential to estimate the dissociation pattern of the charmonium and bottomonium states and also explore how the pattern changes as we go from the perturbative to nonperturbative domain in the Debye mass. The results are in good agreement with the other current theoretical works both from the spectral function analysis and the potential model study.

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