Chapter 2

Phenomenological Models in
Hadron Physics

A phenomenological model is a set of assumptions made about some object

or a system where some of these assumptions may be inspired by a theory.
Based on a phenomenological model, properties of a system are predicted.
These predictions are tested and correlated with experiments. There are
different phenomenological models related with QGP. In this thesis we use
two models to find EoS. They are Cornell Potential model and Relativistic
Harmonic Oscillator Potential model. The most widely used model is the
Bag model, with which EoS are already developed. Hence in this chapter
we introduce the three models. Merits and demerits of these models are
discussed at the end of each model.

17
2.1 Equation of State

Equation of state is a thermodynamic equation which provides a mathemat-

ical relationship between two or more state functions associated with the
matter, such as its temperature, pressure, volume or internal energy. Equa-
tions of state are useful in describing the properties of fluids, mixtures of
fluids, solids, and even the interior of stars. In QCD, computer simulated
equation of states are available where you have no analytical explicit equation
of state.

2.2 Bag Model

The MIT Bag model is a conceptually very simple phenomenological model.

Developed by Chodos et al.[1] in 1974 at the Masachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology in Cambridge (USA) shortly after the formulation of QCD, it became
a major tool for hadron physicists. According to this model, quarks are
forced by a fixed external pressure to move only in a given spatial region.[Fig
(2.1)] In dealing with the nature of quark confinement, one visualization is
that of an elastic bag which allows the quarks to move freely around, as long
as you dont try to pull them further apart. But if you try to pull a quark
out, the bag stretches and resists. In this model we assume that the vacuum
exerts pressure B on the quarks and gluons. The bag is usually spherical in
shape but deformations are possible. Quarks are treated as massless particles
inside a bag of finite dimension. Confinement results from the balance of the
pressure on the bag walls from the outside and the pressure resulting from
the kinetic energy of the quarks inside the bag.

18
 Figure 2.1: A Baryon in MIT Bag Model

In order to obtain the energy eigen value we assume

1. Inside the bag quarks are free fermions.

2. Appropriate boundary condition that no quarks are leaving the bag

3. Outside the bag no quarks are found

Using the above conditions Dirac equation can be solved to get the energy
eigen values as
xn
n = Nq = Ekin (2.1)
R
where R is the radius of the bag, xn is the factor that depends on the quantum
number n and Nq is the number of quarks. The necessary stabilizing potential
energy results from the external pressure. It is given by

4
Epot = R3 B (2.2)
3

19
where B is called bag constant that gives the bag pressure. The total Bag
energy is given by
xn 4 3
E(R) = Nq + R B (2.3)
R 3
Minimizing E(R) with respect to R gives the equilibrium radius of the bag
as 14
Nq x n
Rn = (2.4)
4B
The total energy can rearranged as

4 1
En = 4BNq3 x3n 4 (2.5)
3

For n=0
4 1
E0 = 4BNq3 x30 4 (2.6)
3
Substituting x0 from Eq (2.4) we get

E0 = 4BV0 (2.7)

E0
where V0 = 43 R03 . For a proton E0 1GeV and R0 =0.7 fm. This gives V0

0.7GeV /f m3 . Then from Eq (2.7) we get B 175M eV /f m3

2.3 Quark-Gluon Plasma-Hadron Phase Tran-

sition in the Bag Model

When temperature is very large the running coupling constant s given by

Eq (1.1) becomes small. Then the system is expected to behave as a weakly
interacting gas of quarks and gluons called QGP [2]. Thus a phase transition

20
can occur. Using the bag model, a rough estimate of the orders of magnitude
of the transition temperature can be obtained treating the particles as non-
interacting. We take the hadronic phase as to be composed of massless pions
and QGP state as massless quarks and gluons. The energy density and the
pressure P of a gas of massless relativistic bosons(here pions) are given by
[3] as
2 4
= 3gI T (2.8)
90
and
2 4
P = gI T (2.9)
90
where gI is the internal degrees of freedom of the particle and for fermions

7 2 4
= 3gI T (2.10)
720

and
7 2 4
P = gI T (2.11)
720
For pions gI = 3 taking into account 3 types of pions( + , , 0 ). For QGP
we have gluons and quarks and anti-quarks. For gluons gI = 16(8 colours
+ 2 spin states) and for quarks gI =24 (3 colours+2 spins + 2 flavour +2 q
q). Here two thermodynamic systems hadron phase and QGP phase are in
thermal contact. Then
PH (Tc ) = PQGP (Tc ) (2.12)

For pions
2 4 2 7 2 4
3 Tc = 16 Tc4 + 24 T B (2.13)
90 90 720 c
Solving
14
45B
Tc = (2.14)
17 2

21
 1
With B 4 ' 200MeV, we get Tc ' 150 MeV. Thus pion to quark-gluon plasma
phase transition would occur at a temperature of 150 MeV.

2.4 Discussion on Bag Model

This model is very easy to apply. It allows to incorporate physics in a straight

forward manner. It could describe the mass spectra of light hadrons com-
posed of u, d and s quarks reasonably well with a suitable choice of B. Even
though bag model and extended bag models [4] are successful in explaining
the properties of low lying hadrons, there are a number of drawbacks for
these models. Some of them are discussed here. The unnatural sharp bound-
ary of the bag makes physics at the boundary or at the surface of the bag
complicated. The size of the bag is too large. For R=1 fermi, the bags would
touch each other at normal nuclear density. The calculation of excited state
is complex. The spurious motion of the centre of confinement is very difficult
to account for. Bag model does not preserve the chiral symmetry, which is
considered as a fundamental theory of the strong interactions. The chiral
symmetry is sharply broken at the bag surface.

2.5 Cornell Potential Model

The Coulomb + linear potential is referred to as the Cornell potential, named

after the University to which group which studied it in the late 1970s[5-6]
belong to. This potential is sum of the two asymptotic limits, and is sup-
ported by theoretical calculations using Wilson loops [7] renormalon cancel-

22
lation techniques [8]. The problem of choosing the best confining potential
model was studied in the past through the analysis of quarkonium spectra
and leptonic decay [9] and the results favored the cornell potential. The par-
ticle -particle, particle- antiparticle or antiparticle-antiparticle potential in a
plasma environment is generally defined as

U (r, T ) = zi zj V (rij )

where zi = +1 or zi = 1 when the ith particle corresponds to a particle or

antiparticle respectively. The Cornell potential V (rij ) does not depend on
the nature of the particles and is defined here as

4s
V (rij ) = C rij (2.15)
3rij

for gluon plasma

4 s
V (rij ) = rij (2.16)
3 rij
for quark-antiquark plasma, where s , and C are strong coupling constant,
string tension and Casimir scaling respectively. Casimir scaling means that
potentials between sources in different representations are proportional to
each other with their ratios given by the respective ratios of the eigenvalues
of the corresponding quadratic Casimir operators. Recently Boaz Keren-Zur
[10] tried to explain the measured ratio between the hyperfine splitting of
mesons and baryons using different confinement models. All the data ob-
tained favored Cornell potential. Using the Cornell potential, EoS for gluon
plasma was developed by V.M.Bannur [11] using Mayers cluster expansion
method and compared with the lattice results of the gluon plasma. Bijan.S.S
[12] has earlier obtained an EoS for hadron production analytically using the

23
same potential.

2.6 Relativistic Harmonic Oscillator Poten-

tial Model

Non relativistic harmonic oscillator is one of the simplest of systems that has
been extensively studied both classically as well as quantum mechanically.
It has served as the first approximate solution to many new physics prob-
lems. However a systematic study of harmonic oscillator within the frame
work of relativistic mechanics has not been conducted so far. The study of
quarks and different models for its confinement has invoked interest in the
Relativistic Harmonic Oscillator [RHO] potentials. RHO model proposed by
S.B.Khadkikar and S.K.Gupta [13] has been successful in explaining many
properties of hadrons. Later Khadkikar and VinodKumar [14] formulated a
confinement model for gluons also. Both these models are collectively called
RHO model. In the RHO model the Hamiltonian for the confined quarks
and gluons are given respectively by

q
H= (Mq2 + p2 + 2q r2 ) (2.17)

q
H= (p2 + Cg4 r2 ) (2.18)

where Cg is frequency of gluon fields, p is the momentum,r represents

position of the gluons and quarks in the plasma and Mq is the mass of a
quark. The eigen value equations for quarks and gluons in this model is

24
given by
(p2 + 2q )q = (E 2 M 2 )q (2.19)

for quarks and

(p2 + Cg4 r2 2Cg2 , 0)A = E 2 A (2.20)

for gluons. These eigen value equations give rise to energy eigen values

q
En = Mq2 + (2n + 1)q (2.21)

for quarks and for gluons

q
En = Cg2 (2n + 1) (2.22)

with n = 1, 2, 3. . .
In the studies of hadronic properties the parameters chosen in the RHO
model [15] were
Mq = 160M eV

Cq = 1.162(f m)1

Cg = 2.350(f m)1

2.7 Confinement Model for Quarks

In this scheme the quarks inside a hadron are under the action of a Lorentz
scalar plus a Lorentz vector mean field potential of the form

V = (1 + o )2 r2 + Mq (2.23)

25
where is the confinement mean field parameter, is the Dirac matrix,

I 0
o =
0 I

and r is the mean distance of the quark from the centre. The confined single
particle state of the quarks under this mean field potential is described by
the Dirac equation

[i Mq V (r)] q (r) = 0

where the quark wave function q (r) expressed in bispinor form [q , q ] satisfy
the coupled equation

E Mq 2 r2 q = i.q

and
[E + Mq ] q = i.q

Making some transformations [15] the upper component q will satisfy the
equation

2 + 2 r2 (E + Mq ) q = (E 2 M 2 )q

The eigen value for the above expression is obtained as

q
En = Mq2 + (2n + 3)q

26
 p
where q = En + Mq with n=0, 1, 2... .
This can be modified as

q
En = Mq2 + (2n + 1)q

with n = 1, 2, 3. . .

2.8 Confinement Model for Gluons

The gluons which are the quanta of the colour field carry colour charges and
they interact among themselves. Evidence for such interactions is the very
existence of glueballs which are the colour singlet bound states of multigluons.
Since these coloured gluons are many in number (SU(3)-octet) the coupled
equations obeyed by them are too complex to solve simultaneously. Hence
phenomenological models are preferred. In this model all the eight gluons
are described by the Yang-Mills field tensor to be of equal strength and the
coupled nonlinear term in the field tensor corresponds to a source. In this
model confinement current is assumed to be

J = A

where
A = (A, )

and
= 20 2 r2

27
The Lagrangian density for these gluons can be written as

1 1 1
L = f f + A A + ( A )2
4 2 2

Then the field equation for the vector potential A is

2 A + A + A = 0

and the conjugate of momentum A is

P = A +

The Hamiltonian is given by

Z
1 2 (.P)2 2 2 2
H= P + + A + (.A) A. A
2 0

where and 0 are the vector and scalar components of associated with A
and of A respectively. Quantizing this Hamiltonian, we get energy eigen
values for gluons as
p
En = (2n + 3) (2.24)

with n = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . .
Rearranging with = Cg2 , we get

q
En = Cg2 (2n + 1) (2.25)

with n = 1, 2, 3, . . .

28
2.9 Discussion on RHO Model

From the RHO model following results are obtained. The baryonic and
mesonic masses with open flavours calculated using this model are found to
be in good agreement with experimental values. The prediction on leptonic
decay width agrees with experiment. Centre of mass corrections have been
included exactly. It has smooth confinement behaviour compared to the bag
model. This model was highly successful in explaining very diverse aspects of
hadron spectroscopy, baryon magnetic moments and properties of glue balls,
nucleon polarizability and nucleon antinucleon annihilation. RHO model is
more realistic in its approach compared to MIT Bag Model. However an
equation of state that fits with lattice EoS is not obtained. Quantum me-
chanical calculation for the EoS of pressure for infinite gluon system in RHO
has been done by Khadkikar et al. [16] and it gave an unexpected result
like P T 7 . Generally all the equation of state in the high temperature
limit obey Stefan-Boltzmann law showing the T 4 dependence. But the ear-
lier calculations by Khadkikar et al. showed T 7 dependence which calls for
a complete change in the thermodynamics of QGP. Therefore we revisited
the problem at the classical limit in chapter 3 by replacing the energy eigen
values by classical Hamiltonian in the partition function and evaluated all
thermodynamic functions. Our calculations of the same problem with quan-
tum energy eigen values is given in chapter 4. Both EoS show T 4 dependence
of pressure and energy density at high temperature.

29
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