Support for the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Group of the Nuclear Structure Research Laboratory at the University of Rochester

将利用布鲁克海文国家实验室（BNL）的相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）进行相对论重离子研究。 这项研究将包括开发一种专门的探测器，称为PHOBOS，供RHIC使用。 PHOBOS将提供第一次看到的行为和物质的衰变在极端的能量密度，将在金对金碰撞中创建的能量为100 GeV/核子的质心系统。 这项工作的目的是描述在这种能量碰撞中产生的假设的夸克-胶子等离子体的特征，并且夸克和胶子被认为是去限制的，不像正常强子物质的情况。 此外，研究将在BNL交替梯度同步加速器设施进行。 这个实验将探测比RHIC能量更低的强子-强子相互作用的动力学，在那里相互作用的细节被更好地理解，并且在那里改进的理解将允许RHIC能量的普通强子物质的行为的所需的外推。 这些数据将把我们对物质的认识扩展到被认为只存在于早期宇宙最初几微秒的能量和密度。 这一主题是美国核科学中的一个高度优先事项，由NSF/DOE核科学咨询委员会在其1996年长期计划中确定。 学生和博士后的教育是这个实验计划的重要组成部分。

Research in relativistic heavy ions will be carried out making use of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The research will include development of a specialized detector known as PHOBOS for use at RHIC. PHOBOS will provide a first look at the behavior and decay of matter at the extreme energy densities that will be created in gold-on-gold collisions with energies of 100GeV/nucleon in the center-of-mass system. This work is aimed at characterizing the hypothesized quark-gluon plasma which is created in such energies collisions, and in which quarks and gluons are thought to be deconfined, unlike the case in normal hadronic matter. In addition, research will be carried out at the BNL Alternating Gradient Synchrotron facility. This experiment will probe the dynamics of hadron-hadron interactions at lower energies than RHIC, where the details of the interactions are better understood and where improved understanding will permit needed extrapolations of the behavior of ordinary hadronic matter of RHIC energies. These data will extend our knowledge of matter to energies and densities thought to have existed only in the first microseconds of the early universe. This topic is a high priority within US nuclear science, as established by the joint NSF/DOE Nuclear Science Advisory Committee in its 1996 Long Range Plan. Education of students and postdocs is a strong component of this experimental program.