Phenomenology for High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

密歇根州立回旋加速器最近的实验，欧洲核子研究中心的SPS，以及布鲁克海文国家实验室RHIC未来的实验，承诺创造条件，提供足够的热量，以回旋能量将核物质溶解成组成质子和中子，并在大型设施中将物质蒸发成组成夸克和胶子。在这些更高的能量下，真空本身的结构实际上应该在整个核体积中融化一小段时间。由于这些碰撞导致从单个事件发射数以千计的亚原子粒子，各种实验观测和信号的前景在很大程度上取决于与探测器的几何形状、接受度和分辨率有关的实验细节。通过与实验小组密切合作，并仔细模拟碰撞和实验响应，我们希望解决有关这些基本相变性质的几个悬而未决的问题。

Recent experiments at the Michigan State cyclotron, the SPS at CERN, and future experiments at RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory promise to create conditions where enough heat is supplied to dissolve nuclear matter into constituent protons and neutrons at cyclotron energies, and to vaporize the matter into constituent quarks and gluons at the large facilities. At these higher energies, the structure of the vacuum itself should actually melt for a brief instant throughout the nuclear volume. Since these collisions result in the emission of thousands of subatomic particles from a single event, the promise of various experimental observables and signals depends crucially on experimental details regarding the geometry, acceptance and resolution of the detectors. By collaborating closely with experimental groups and by carefully modeling the collisions and the experimental response, we hope to resolve several outstanding questions regarding the nature of these fundamental phase transitions.