Structure Functions and Pair Correlations of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

Recent experiments at RHIC and theoretical considerations indicate that the quark-gluon plasma, present in the fireball of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, might be in a liquid phase. The liquid state can be identified by characteristic correlation and structure functions. Here definitions of the structure functions and pair correlations of the quark-gluon plasma are presented as well as perturbative results. These definitions might be useful for verifying the quark-gluon-plasma liquid in QCD lattice calculations.

Comments: 9 pages, 1 figure, revised version (new remark on the coupling parameter on page 2), to be published in Phys. Rev. D