Non-relativistically exact single scattering calculations for coherent pion photoproduction by deuterons at intermediate photon energies (200 MeV to 500 MeV) are presented. For the two-bodyγN→πN process we use the well-known dispersion theoretic model by Chewet al and for the deuteron wave-functions we employ the Yamaguchi and the two term Gaussian wave-function. We find that while both the wavefunctions reproduce the deuteron e.m. form factor reasonably well, the results for the pion photoproduction cross-section show, however, a sensitive dependence on their detailed forms. The angular distributions at various energies are found to have considerable variations from the usual impulse approximation calculations but tend to improve the agreement with the data in a large kinematical region.

We evaluate the emissivity rates for d-decay and s-decay by exactly solving the angular integrals involved and without assuming the degeneracy of electrons. We have also studied the effects of QCD coupling constant as well as the s-quark mass on the emissivity rates. We find that these parameters are important in determining the threshold and extinction densities for d- and s-decays.

We study high energy photon production from a quark-gluon plasma at finite baryon density. We find that the photon production spectrum from the quark-gluon plasma maintained at constant temperature is only mildly dependent on the quark chemical potential.

Viscosity of neutron stars has been a continuing area of research for many years now. Recently interest in this field has revived because of the possibility of URCA processes in neutron stars. In this paper we report calculation of the bulk viscosity of neutron stars from these processes. For this purpose we have used theβ-decay rates which were calculated without making the usual approximations of neglecting the neutrino momentum and using the nuclear mean field theory for the description of interacting nuclear matter. Also we have not restricted our calculation to the linear regime which corresponds to the assumption that fluctuations in the chemical potential away fromβ-equilibrium remain small: Δμ/kT ≪ 1. We find that for large amplitude fluctuations, where the linear approximation is not valid, bulk viscosity increases by many orders of magnitude. Also, as against strange matter stars, where the viscosity first increases with increasing temperature and then starts decreasing beyond 0.1 MeV, we find that the viscosity increases uniformly with temperature at least up to 2MeV. We discuss the implications of these results for the stability of neutron stars.

The effect of strong magnetic field on the bulk properties of quark matter is reinvestigated takingu, d ands-quarks as well as electrons in the presence of magnetic field. Here the bag pressure is chosen such that in the absence of magnetic field and at zero temperature the binding energy of theuds-system is <930 MeV while that ofud-system is greater than 940 MeV. It is observed that the equation of state changes significantly in a strong magnetic field. At finite temperature the electron chemical potential varies between 6 and 50 MeV. Thus the expansion of thermodynamical quantities in powers ofT/(Μ_i²-M_v⁽ⁱ⁾²)^1/2 is valid only up to few MeV. For high temperatures ∼40 MeV the exact integral expressions are to be taken.

We have studied the bulk viscosity of strange quark matter in the density dependent quark mass model (DDQM) and compared results with calculations done earlier in the MIT bag model where u, d masses were neglected and first order interactions were taken into account. We find that at low temperatures and high relative perturbations, the bulk viscosity is higher by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude while at low perturbations the enhancement is by 1–2 order of magnitude as compared to earlier results. Also the damping time is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower implying that the star reaches stability much earlier than in MIT bag model calculations.