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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