CAREER: New Theoretical Developments in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。非常早期的宇宙，在其创建后的第一个瞬间，充满了非常热和密集的物质汤，由夸克，轻子和胶子组成。当宇宙膨胀和冷却时，但仍然是大爆炸后的几毫秒，夸克和胶子突然凝聚成质子和中子，最终构成了我们周围所有化学元素的原子核。这个过程（称为QCD相变）和热而致密的原始物质（称为夸克胶子等离子体），现在可以在实验室中通过具有非常大能量的重原子核的碰撞来重现。这些实验分别在美国的相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）和欧洲的大型强子对撞机（LHC）上进行。在这项提议中，PI开发的工具将使我们能够（a）理解夸克胶子等离子体是如何在核碰撞中形成的，以及（B）如何测试其性质。第一部分很重要，它将我们想要研究的新阶段（夸克胶子等离子体）与实验室中的创造机制（核碰撞）分开。这最终将使我们能够确定夸克胶子等离子体的重要性质和QCD相变的性质，比以前精确得多。第二部分研究如何探针，可以穿透这种致密的物质，光子和所谓的QCD喷流，可以用于夸克胶子等离子体和所有核物质的断层扫描。这是一个现有的方法，它的工作在定性水平上，但将显着提高精度，通过计划的research.This建议还包括一个推广计划，这将提高现有的周六上午物理程序在得克萨斯州A M大学的高中教师参与和增加互动组件。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The very early universe, in the first instance after its creation, was filled with a very hot and dense soup of matter, consisting of quarks, leptons and gluons. When the universe expanded and cooled, but still just milliseconds after the Big Bang, quarks and gluons suddenly condensed into protons and neutrons which eventually made up the nuclei of all the chemical elements around us. This process (called the QCD phase transition) and the hot and dense primordial matter (called the Quark Gluon Plasma), can be recreated nowadays in the laboratory in collisions of heavy nuclei with very large energies. Such experiments take place at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the US and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe.In this proposal the PI develops tools that will allow us to (a) understand how a Quark Gluon Plasma is formed in nuclear collisions, and (b) how its properties can be tested. The first part is important to separate the new phase that we want to study (the Quark Gluon Plasma) from the creation mechanism in the lab (the nuclear collision). This should eventually allow us to determine important properties of Quark Gluon Plasma and the nature of the QCD phase transition to much higher accuracy than before. The second part studies how probes which can penetrate this dense matter, photons and so-called QCD jets, can be used for a tomography of Quark Gluon Plasma and all nuclear matter. This is an existing method which works on a qualitative level, but will be dramatically improved in precision through the planned research.This proposal also includes an outreach program which will enhance the existing Saturday Morning Physics program at Texas A&M University by involving high school teachers and adding interactive components.