Exploring the Quark Gluon Plasma with Bikash Sinha

A personal account of his scientific and professional adventures

For the celebration of his 60’th birthday

Larry McLerran

Calcutta, Feb. 2005

Or how he got from here -------------------------> to there

Bikash Sinha: Early Science Education

University of Calcutta, B. Sc., Physics Honors 1964

First modern university in India: 1857

Nobel prize winning faculty:

Rabindranath Tagore: poet philosopher, nationalist

Sir C. V. Raman: Raman Scattering

Amartya Sen: mathematical economist, welfare economics

C. V. Raman Bikash and S. N. Bose M. N. Saha

First medical school in asia

First science department in India

First women’s college

Distinguished physics faculty include Raman,

Bose and Saha

Saha and Bose Institutes

Bikash Sinha: Cambridge and University of London

Cambridge University BA 1967; MA 1968 Natural Sciences (Physics Tripos)

London University PhD 1970:

Senior Research Fellow 1970-1976 King’s College U of London

D. Sc. 1981

Research on optical potential: Importance of 2 body interactions including saturation effects which limits nucleon from getting to

close to each other

1973: First paper with Dinesh Srivastava: Energy Dependence

of Optical Potential

1970-1976: 9 Phys. Lett;4 Nuc. Phys; 10 “other” journals such as

PRL, PRC, Phys. Rept.

Return to India:

Dr. R. Rammana invites Bikash to join Nuclear Physics Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Center

Hot spots in nuclear collisions Density dependent delta

function interactions

1983: First paper on QGP:

Universal Signals of the QGP

Abstract: It is shown that the ratio of production rates of photon to muon pairs and

pions to muon pairs from a QGP are independent of the space time evolution of the plasma fireball and thus are universal signals

of the quark-gluon plasma

Idea: Pions reflect entropy which is conserved in slow expansion late in collision; Energetic photons and dileptons made early

and do not rescatter.

Basis of much later work of Calcutta group

1987

First paper with S. Raha

1984: Moves to Calcutta to become Head of Research Facilities and Computer at VECC

Establishes research group on Quark Gluon Plasma

First school on QGP in India in 1986

Takes leadership role in developing talents young brilliant research

scientists

WA 80-98 experiments at CERN begin looking for direct photons; now a major component of every QGP experiment

1988 organizes first ICPAQGP at Tata Institute in Bombay

Bikash Sinha

Bikash and the ICPAQGP Series

1988 Bombay

1993 Calcutta

1997 Jaipur

2001 Jaipur

2005 Calcutta

Memorable first meeting:Van Hove and Sinha: QGP Signatures

Alcock and Olinto: Strangelets

School in Jaipur before meeting: Rambagh Palace, Alsisas Havelli, Polo

Bar……

The Metamorphoses Ovid (Garth and Dreyden)

Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball,And Heaven’s high canopy that covers all,

One was the face of Nature, if a face:Rather a rude and indigested mass:

A lifeless lump, un-fashioned and unframed:Of jarring seeds: and justly Chaos named.No sun was lighted up, the world to view;No moon did yet her blunted horns renew,Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky,Nor poised, did on her foundations lie,

Nor sea about the shores their arms had thrown,But earth and air and water were on.

Thus air was devoid of light and earth unstable,And waters dark abyss un-navigable.

Bikash Sinha: The QGP and Electromagnetic Probes

WA 80-98 So few

Ceres: So many

Phenix: Just right

The QGP?

Calcutta PMD Work:

Essential elements of WA80-98 , STAR and ALICE experiments

New results from STAR!

Chandogya Upanishad (about 1000 BC)

In the beginning, the world was just being. Some people would no doubt say, this world was just non-being, and from non-being was produced. But how could that

be so? How could being be produced from non being? On the contrary, the world was being alone. One being without a second.

Being thought to itself: “May I be many, may I procreate.” It produced fire. Fire thought to itself: “May I be many, may I procreate.” Fire produced water.

Therefore when a person perspires, it is from fire that the water is produced. Water thought to itself: “May I be many, may I procreate.” Water produced food. And when it rains, there is abundant food, for it is from water from which eating is

produced.

Being thought to itself: “ Having entered into these three divinities by means of this living self, let me develop names and forms.”

A dialogue between a student and a teacher:

Bring me a fig from that tree. It is here.

Break it. It is broken.

What do you see now? Very fine seeds.

Now break a seed. It is broken.

What do you see? Nothing at all.

In truth, that subtle essence which you do not perceive is from what this giant fig tree arises. Believe me, that which is subtle essence, this whole world has that

essence for itself.

Bikash Sinha: Cosmology and the QGP

Bikash Sinha: Cosmology and the QGP

Large scale density fluctuations at QGP transition

Bikash Sinha: Strangelets

Stable strange quark matter

Charge/Mass ~ 0 => No Coulomb Instability

Hard to make since need multiple weak decays

Big bang? Neutron star or black hole collisions?

Darjeeling Experiment: Lexan plates

Bikash Sinha: Strange Stars

Dark matter in halo?

Baryogenesis?

Alcock: Gravitational lensing

Probably not enough

What about Centauro?

Bikash Sinha: Nurturing the young

Protect from other carnivores Protect from bureaucracy Enrich culture

Broaden horizons

Major Collaborators: V. R. W. Edwards, D. Srivastava, F. Duggan, R. J. Griffiths, S.

Moszkowski, S. Raha, A. K. Chaudhuri, D. N. Basu, B. Datta, S. Chakrabarty, J. Alam, P.

Battacharjee, S. Sarkar, D. Pal, P. K. Roy, S. Sarkar, S. Chattopadhyay, M. Mustafa, B.

Dutta Roy, B. Patra, S. Banerjee, S. K. Ghosh, B. Mohanty, A. Rahaman;

WA**, STAR, ALICE

Over 150 publications

Bikash Sinha: Contributions in the larger world of science

33 Articles of General Interest:

“The Changing Scenario of Nuclear Physics”, Science Today (1979)

“Nuclear Power in India” Weekly DESH (1983)

“The Craziness Necessary for Research Exists in Calcutta More Than Anywhere Else”. The Telegraph (1987)

“Why Are We Wasting Our Talent”, The Telegraph (1991)

“The Soviets Do Not Mind Shedding Tears in Public”,The Telegraph, (1991)

“Sales Talk and Vodka Among the Test Tube”, The Telegraph (1993)

“Electrified by a Nuclear Vision”, The Telegraph (1999)

Onuclearo is not a Nightmare”, Business Economic (2000)

Fascinating recent work about helium from thermal hot springs in Bakreswar and Tantloi:

Correlations with geological activity

Established Radiation Medicine Center in Kolkata as part of VECC

Bikash Sinha: Major Honors

S. N. Bose Birth Centenary Award 1994Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences (Delhi), National Academy (Bangalore),

and Indian Academy fo Sciences (Allahabad) DAE Raja Ramanna Prize 2001

Pandya Endowment Memorial Lecture Award 2001Rais Ahmed Memorial Lecture Award 2001

Fellow of 3’d World Academy of Sciences 2002Padma Shri Award (2001)

Major Accomplishments:Superconducting Cyclotron

Superconducting magnet coil The wires go round and roundKeeping cool

Visiting VECC

Shri Satyabrata Mookherje: Honorable Minister of State, Satistics and Program Implementation,

Planning, Atomic Energy, Space, Commerce and Industry;

Dr. Anil Kakodkar: Chairman AEC and Secretary, Dept of Atomic Energy

Cool down started. Magnet energized?

Bikash Sinha: Major Responsibilities

Director: Saha Institute

Director: VECC

Vice-Chancellor, West Bengal University of Technology

Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet, Govt. of India 1997- present

And much, much more…….

In the tradition of the renaissance, a man is the

sum of his accomplishments

And a great man leaves more than the sum of his

accomplishments