1. 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

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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……

7. 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!

8. 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

9. Large scale density fluctuations at QGP transition

10. 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

11. Bikash Sinha: Strange Stars Dark matter in halo? Baryogenesis? Alcock: Gravitational lensing Probably not enough What about Centauro?

12. Bikash Sinha: Nurturing the young Protect from other carnivores Protect from bureaucracyEnrich 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

13. 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

14. 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 3’d World Academy of Sciences 2002 Padma Shri Award (2001)

15. Major Accomplishments: Superconducting Cyclotron Superconducting magnet coilThe 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?

16. 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