A novel gas-based detector using large arrays of honeycomb cells has been developed and tested for use as a pre-shower photon multiplicity detector (PMD) for STAR and ALICE experiments. The appropriate cell design was arrived at using GARFIELD simulations. Prototype chambers with cell dimensions corresponding to STAR and ALICE were fabricated and tested at CERN PS and SPS. The charged particle detection efficiency and the pre-shower characteristics have been studied using pion and electron beams.

The state of intermolecular aggregates and that of folded gelatin molecules could be characterized by dynamic laser light and small-angle neutron scattering experiments, which implied spontaneous segregation of particle sizes preceding coacervation, which is a liquid-liquid phase transition phenomenon. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) data analysis revealed two particle sizes until precipitation was reached. The smaller particles having a diameter of ∼50 nm (stable nanoparticles prepared by coacervation method) were detected in the supernatant, whereas the inter-molecular aggregates having a diameter of ∼400 nm gave rise to coacervation. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments revealed that typical mesh size of the networks exist in polymer dense phase (coacervates) [1]. Analysis of the SANS structure factor showed the presence of two length scales associated with this system that were identified as the correlation length or mesh size, ξ = 10.6 Å of the network and the other is the size of inhomogeneities = 21.4 Å. Observations were discussed based on the results obtained from SANS experiments performed in 5% (w/v) gelatin solution at 60°C (ξ = 50 Å, ζ = 113 Å) and 5% (w/v) gel at 28°C (ξ = 47 Å, ζ = 115 Å) in aqueous phase [2] indicating smaller length scales in coacervate as compared to sol and gel.

The 10th Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-10) was held at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai during January 2–13, 2008. One of our working grops (WG) is QCD and QGP. The discussions of QGP WG include matter at high density, lattice QCD, charmonium states in QGP, viscous hydrodynamics and jet quenching, colour factor in heavy ion collisions and RHIC results on photons, dileptons and heavy quark. There were two plenary talks and several working group talks with intense discussions regarding the future activities that are going to be persued.