Exploring the Quark Gluon Plasma with Bikash Sinha

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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 60th birthday
Larry McLerran Calcutta, Feb. 2005
Or how he got from here
-------------------------gt to there
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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
First medical school in asia First science
department in India First womens
college Distinguished physics faculty include
Raman, Bose and Saha Saha and Bose Institutes
C. V. Raman
M. N. Saha
Bikash and S. N. Bose
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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 Kings
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
1970-1976 9 Phys. Lett4 Nuc. Phys 10 other
journals such as PRL, PRC, Phys. Rept.
1973 First paper with Dinesh Srivastava Energy
Dependence of Optical Potential
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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
1987 First paper with S. Raha
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
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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
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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
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Bikash Sinha The QGP and Electromagnetic Probes
The Metamorphoses Ovid (Garth and
Dreyden) Before the seas, and this terrestrial
ball, And Heavens 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.
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!
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Bikash Sinha Cosmology and the QGP
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.
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Bikash Sinha Cosmology and the QGP
Large scale density fluctuations at QGP transition
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Bikash Sinha Strangelets
Stable strange quark matter Charge/Mass 0 gt No
Coulomb Instability Hard to make since need
multiple weak decays Big bang? Neutron star or
black hole collisions?
Darjeeling Experiment Lexan plates
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Bikash Sinha Strange Stars
Dark matter in halo? Baryogenesis? Alcock
Gravitational lensing Probably not enough
What about Centauro?
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Bikash Sinha Nurturing the young
Protect from other carnivores
Protect from bureaucracy
Enrich culture
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
Broaden horizons
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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)
Established Radiation Medicine Center in Kolkata
as part of VECC
Fascinating recent work about helium from thermal
hot springs in Bakreswar and Tantloi Correlations
with geological activity
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Bikash Sinha Major Honors
S. N. Bose Birth Centenary Award 1994 Fellow 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
2001 Rais Ahmed Memorial Lecture Award
2001 Fellow of 3d World Academy of Sciences
2002 Padma Shri Award (2001)
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Major Accomplishments Superconducting Cyclotron
Superconducting magnet coil
The wires go round and round
Keeping 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?
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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