In this work we discuss the emission of low mass dilepton radiation from a hydrodynamic evolution model of Au-Au collisions and make comparisons with recent PHENIX measurements. The dilepton emission rates from the hadronic phase are treated at finite temperature and baryon density and are completely constrained by broken chiral symmetry in a density expansion. The rates are expressed in terms of vacuum correlators which are measured in $e^+e^-$ annihilation, $\tau$ decays and photo-reactions on nucleons and nuclei. We consider two possibilities for the hadronic phase: A chemical equilibrated an off equilibrium hadronic gas. We find that while chemical off-equilibrium helps explain part of the low mass (0.15 $\leq$ M GeV $\leq$ 0.7) enhancement seen in the data there is still a large discrepancy.

We study the three-nucleon force in chiral effective field theory with explicit Delta-resonance degrees of freedom. We show that up to next-to-next-to-leading order, the only contribution to the isospin symmetric three-nucleon force involving the spin-3/2 degrees of freedom is given by the two-pion-exchange diagram with an intermediate delta, frequently called the Fujita-Miyazawa force. We also analyze the leading isospin-breaking corrections due to the delta. For that, we give the first analysis of the delta quartet mass splittings in chiral effective field theory. The charge-symmetry breaking three-nucleon force due to an intermediate delta excitation is small, of the order of a few keV.

We derive the long-range contributions to the tree-nucleon force at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in the chiral expansion. We give both momentum and coordinate space representations.

We evaluate the "$\sigma$" exchange contribution to the $\bar{K}N\to\bar{K}N$ scattering within a chiral unitary approach. We show that the chiral transition potentials for $\pi \pi \to K \bar{K}$ in the $t$-channel lead to a "$\sigma$" contribution that vanishes in the $\bar{K}$ forward direction and, hence, would produce a null "$\sigma$" exchange contribution to the $K^-$ optical potential in nuclear matter in a simple impulse approximation. This finding poses questions on the meaning or the origin of "$\sigma$" exchange potentials used in relativistic mean field approaches to the $K^-$ nuclear selfenergy. This elementary "$\sigma$" exchange potential in $\bar{K}N\to\bar{K}N$ is compared to the Weinberg-Tomozawa term and is found to be smaller than present theoretical uncertainties but will be relevant in the future when aiming at fitting increasingly more accurate data.

The most recent development of the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model, in which the effect of the mean scalar field in-medium on the hyperfine interaction is also included self-consistently, is used to compute the properties of finite hypernuclei. The calculations for $\Lambda$ and $\Xi$ hypernuclei are of comparable quality to earlier QMC results without the additional parameter needed there. Even more significantly, the additional repulsion associated with the increased hyperfine interaction in-medium completely changes the predictions for $\Sigma$ hypernuclei. Whereas in the earlier work they were bound by an amount similar to $\Lambda$ hypernuclei, here they are unbound, in qualitative agreement with the experimental absence of such states. The equivalent non-relativistic potential felt by the $\Sigma$ is repulsive inside the nuclear interior and weakly attractive in the nuclear surface, as suggested by the analysis of $\Sigma$-atoms.

Possible bound and resonant states of the hypernuclear systems $\Lambda nn$ and $\Lambda\Lambda n$ are sought as zeros of the corresponding three-body Jost functions calculated within the framework of the hyperspherical approach with local two-body S-wave potentials describing the $nn$, $\Lambda n$, and $\Lambda\Lambda$ interactions. Very wide near-threshold resonances are found for both three-body systems. The positions of these resonances turned out to be sensitive to the choice of the $\Lambda n$-potential. Bound $\Lambda nn$ and $\Lambda\Lambda n$ states only appear if the two-body potentials are multiplied by a factor of $\sim 1.5$.

Measurements of the differential and total cross sections for the $p d \to

^3$He $\eta$ reaction at five energies were recently reported [Phys. Rev. C {\bf 75}, 014004 (2007)] and comparisons with theoretical models were made. We point out that these comparisons involved a model based on ad hoc assumptions and hence the conclusions regarding the reaction mechanism as well as the role of the higher partial waves drawn in the above work are misleading. Revised conclusions based on better model calculations are presented.

We investigate the phenomenology of freely expanding fluids, with different material properties, evolving through the Israel-Stewart (IS) causal viscous hydrodynamics, and compare our results with those obtained in the relativistic Eckart-Landau-Navier-Stokes (ELNS) acausal viscous hydrodynamics. Through the analysis of scaling invariants we give a definition of thermalization time which can be self-consistently determined in viscous hydrodynamics. Next we construct the solutions for one-dimensional boost-invariant flows. Expansion of viscous fluids is slower than that of one-dimensional ideal fluids, resulting in entropy production. At late times, these flows are reasonably well approximated by solutions obtained in ELNS hydrodynamics. Estimates of initial energy densities from observed final values are strongly dependent on the dynamics one chooses. For the same material, and the same final state, IS hydrodynamics gives the smallest initial energy density. We also study fluctuations about these one-dimensional boost-invariant backgrounds; they are damped in ELNS hydrodynamics but can become sound waves in IS hydrodynamics. The difference is obvious in power spectra due to clear signals of wave-interference in IS hydrodynamics, which is completely absent in ELNS dynamics.

A quantitative evaluation of dilepton sources in heavy-ion reactions is performed taking into account both thermal and non-thermal production mechanisms. The hadronic thermal emission rate is based on an electromagnetic current-correlation function with a low-mass region (LMR, M \lsim 1 GeV) dominated by vector mesons (\rho, \omega, \phi) and an intermediate-mass region (IMR, 1 GeV \le M \le 3 GeV) characterized by (the onset of) a multi-meson continuum. A convolution of the emission rates over a thermal fireball expansion results in good agreement with experiment in the low-mass spectra, confirming the predicted broadening of the \rho meson in hadronic matter in connection with the prevalence of baryon-induced medium effects. The absolute magnitude of the LMR excess is mostly controlled by the fireball lifetime, which in turn leads to a consistent explanation of the dilepton excess in the IMR in terms of thermal radiation. The analysis of experimental transverse-momentum (q_T) spectra reveals discrepancies with thermal emission for q_T \gsim 1 GeV in noncentral In-In collisions, which we address by extending our calculations by: (i) a refined treatment of \rho decays at thermal freezeout, (ii) primordially produced \rho's subject to energy-loss, (iii) Drell-Yan annihilation, and (iv) thermal radiation from t-channel meson exchange processes. We investigate the sensitivity of dilepton spectra to the critical temperature and hadro-chemical freezeout of the fireball. The \rho broadening in the LMR turns out to be robust, while in the IMR Quark-Gluon Plasma radiation is moderate unless the critical temperature is rather low.

We analyze the determination of volume effects for correlation functions that depend on an external momentum. As a specific example, we consider finite volume nucleon current correlators, and focus on the nucleon magnetic moment. Because the multipole decomposition relies on SO(3) rotational invariance, the structure of such finite volume corrections is unrelated to infinite volume multipole form factors. One can deduce volume corrections to the magnetic moment only when a zero-mode photon coupling vanishes, as occurs at next-to-leading order in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. To deduce such finite volume corrections, however, one must assume continuous momentum transfer. In practice, volume corrections with momentum transfer dependence are required to address the extraction of the magnetic moment, or other observables that arise in momentum dependent correlation functions. Additionally we shed some light on a puzzle concerning differences in lattice form factor data at equal values of momentum transfer squared.

Properties, structure, and thermal evolution of neutron stars are determined by the equation of state of stellar matter. Recent data on isospin-diffusion and isoscaling in heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies as well as the size of neutron skin in $^{208}Pb$ have constrained considerably the density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy and, in turn, the equation of state of neutron-rich nucleonic matter. These constraints could provide useful information about the global properties of rapidly rotating neutron stars. Models of rapidly rotating neutron stars are constructed applying several nucleonic equations of state. Particular emphasis is placed on configurations rotating rigidly at $716$ and $1122Hz$. The range of allowed hydrostatic equilibrium solutions is determined and tested for stability. The effect of rotation on the internal composition and thermal properties of neutron stars is also examined. At a given rotational frequency, each equation of state yields a range of possible neutron stars configurations restricted by the Keplerian (mass-shedding) limit, corresponding to the maximal circumferential radius, and the limit due to the onset of instabilities with respect to axial-symmetric perturbations, corresponding to the minimal equatorial radius of a stable neutron star model. We show that the mass of a neutron star rotating uniformly at $1122Hz$ is between $1.7$ and $2.1M_{\sun}$. Central stellar density and proton fraction decrease with increasing rotational frequency with respect to static models, and depending on the exact stellar mass and angular velocity, can drop below the Direct Urca threshold thus closing the fast cooling channel.

Nuclear parton distribution functions (NPDFs) are determined by global analyses of experimental data on structure-function ratios F_2^A/F_2^{A'} and Drell-Yan cross-section ratios \sigma_{DY}^A/\sigma_{DY}^{A'}. The analyses are done in the leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) of running coupling constant \alpha_s. Uncertainties of the NPDFs are estimated in both LO and NLO for finding possible NLO improvement. Valence-quark distributions are well determined, and antiquark distributions are also determined at x<0.1. However, the antiquark distributions have large uncertainties at x>0.2. Gluon modifications cannot be fixed at this stage. Although the advantage of the NLO analysis, in comparison with the LO one, is generally the sensitivity to the gluon distributions, gluon uncertainties are almost the same in the LO and NLO. It is because current scaling-violation data are not accurate enough to determine precise nuclear gluon distributions. Modifications of the PDFs in the deuteron are also discussed by including data on the proton-deuteron ratio F_2^D/F_2^p in the analysis. A code is provided for calculating the NPDFs and their uncertainties at given x and Q^2 in the LO and NLO.

Both scalar and vector light resonances can be generated from the unitarization of one-loop chiral perturbation theory. This amounts to using in a dispersion relation the chiral expansion, which incorporates the correct QCD quark mass dependence. We can thus predict the quark mass dependence of the poles associated to those light resonances. Our results compare well with some recent lattice results for the rho(770) mass and can be used as a benchmark for future lattice results on the rho(770) or the f0(600) also known as the sigma.

The hot and dense strongly interacting matter created in collisions of heavy nuclei at RHIC energies is modeled with relativistic hydrodynamics, and the spectra of real and virtual photons produced at mid-rapidity in these events are calculated. Several different sources are considered, and their relative importance is compared. Specifically, we include jet fragmentation, jet-plasma interactions, the emission of radiation from the thermal medium and from primordial hard collisions. Our calculations consistently take into account jet energy loss, as evaluated in the AMY formalism. We obtain results for the spectra, the nuclear modification factor (R_AA), and the azimuthal anisotropy (v_2) that agree with the photon measurements performed by the PHENIX collaboration at RHIC.

Nuclear parton distribution functions (NPDFs) are determined by a global analysis of experimental measurements on structure-function ratios F_2^A/F_2^{A'} and Drell-Yan cross section ratios \sigma_{DY}^A/\sigma_{DY}^{A'}, and their uncertainties are estimated by the Hessian method. The NPDFs are obtained in both leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) of \alpha_s. As a result, valence-quark distributions are relatively well determined, whereas antiquark distributions at x>0.2 and gluon distributions in the whole x region have large uncertainties. The NLO uncertainties are slightly smaller than the LO ones; however, such a NLO improvement is not as significant as the nucleonic case.