ADVANCE Fellows Award: Multiple Scattering in QCD and Medium Effects in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

这项工作探讨了在纽约布鲁克海文国家实验室新建的相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）和瑞士欧洲核子研究中心未来的大型强子对撞机（LHC）上，在相对论重离子碰撞中产生的强相互作用力的动力学和热致密物质的性质。通过在极端能量下的重离子碰撞，产生了足够温度的介观区域，并为产生夸克胶子等离子体（QGP）创造了有利条件，这是一种在我们宇宙最初几微秒内存在的物质状态。通过研究QGP以及它是如何产生、冷却和膨胀的，我们可以获得对早期宇宙的新见解，以及物质的最基本成分与构成我们周围世界的复杂粒子和原子核阵列之间的关系。研究的重点是致密核物质中粒子的多重散射。根据量子色动力学（QCD）这一公认的强相互作用力理论，计算了各种粒子谱和粒子间的相关性。所得的预测结果可以与RHIC和LHC的观测结果进行比较。测量这样的光谱和相关性将有助于实验学家发现QGP，并使我们能够研究它的性质。在该奖学金的支持下，首席研究员还在爱荷华州立大学物理与天文系从事本科和研究生教学，在那里她作为女学生的榜样和导师，从而鼓励年轻女性参与科学。

This work explores the dynamics of the Strong Interaction Force and the properties of hot and dense matter produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions at the newly built Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab in New York and the future Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Switzerland. By colliding heavy ions at extreme energies, mesoscopic regions of sufficient temperature are created with conditions favorable for creating quark gluon plasma (QGP), a state of matter that existed during the first few microseconds of our universe. By studying the QGP and how it was created, cools and expands, we can gain new insights into the early universe and the relationship between the most fundamental constituents of matter and the complex array of particles and nuclei that make up the world around us today. The research focuses on particle multiple scattering in dense nuclear matter. In terms of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), an accepted theory for the strong interaction force, various particle spectra and particle-particle correlations are calculated. The resulting predictions can be compared with observations at RHIC and LHC. Measuring such spectra and correlations will help experimentalists to discover the QGP and enable us to study its properties. With support from this Fellows award, the Principal Investigator also engages in undergraduate and graduate teaching in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Iowa State University, where she serves as a role model and mentor for women students, and thus encourages young women to participate in science.