U.S.-Sweden Cooperative Research: High Energy Heavy Ion Interactions

该奖项将支持美国和瑞典物理学家在高能重离子相互作用方面的持续合作。Drs。华盛顿大学的R. Jeffrey Wilkes, Thompson H. Burnett和Jeri J. Lord将与隆德大学的K.N. Ingvar Otterlund博士及其实验室小组继续他们的研究工作。实验将在瑞士日内瓦的欧洲核子研究中心重离子设施和美国的布鲁克海文国家实验室进行，数据的分析和简化将在各自的大学进行。重离子Si-28和S-32将被加速到15-200 GeV/核子的能量，然后被引导到乳剂室探测器上，这是一组核乳剂板，可以非常精确地观察产生的粒子轨迹。实验的主要目的是寻找核物质的新状态，夸克-胶子等离子体，理论上预测它最有可能在重离子碰撞中产生。这个实验代表了一个独特的机会来研究物质的高密度相，因为新的CERN硫离子束的能量将比以往任何原子序数大于Z=16的粒子的加速器束的能量高出近50倍。该项目结合了两个领先的国际研究小组在使用乳液技术研究核相互作用方面的专业知识。这项研究对利用新获得的重离子高能束具有重要和及时的意义。

This award will support ongoing collaboration between U.S. and Swedish physicists on the topic of high energy heavy ion interactions. Drs. R. Jeffrey Wilkes, Thompson H. Burnett and Jeri J. Lord of the University of Washington will continue their research efforts with Dr. K.N. Ingvar Otterlund and his laboratory group at the University of Lund. Experiments will be performed at the CERN heavy ion facility in Geneva, Switzerland, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the United States, and the analysis and reduction of the data will be conducted at the respective individual universities. The heavy ions Si-28 and S-32 will be accelerated to energies of 15-200 GeV/nucleon and then directed onto emulsion chamber detectors, which are arrays of nuclear emulsion plates permitting extremely precise observations of produced particle tracks. The major purpose of the experiment will be to search for the new state of nuclear matter, the quark-gluon plasma, which is predicted theoretically to be most likely created in heavy ion collisions. The experiment represents a unique opportunity to study this high density phase of matter, since the new CERN sulfur ion beam will be nearly 50 times more energetic than any previous accelerator beams of particles having atomic numbers greater than Z=16. This project combines the expertise of two of the leading international research groups in the use of emulsion techniques for the study of nuclear interactions. The proposed investigation is important and timely in making use of newly available energetic beams of heavy ions.