RUI: The Spin Puzzle, PHENIX, and Heavy Ions with Muhlenberg Undergraduates

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(Public Law 111-5)资助的。穆伦堡学院的教职员工和学生计划与世界各地的科学家合作，在布鲁克海文国家实验室的相对论重离子对撞机(RHIC)开展研究项目。Muhlenberg学院的研究项目有两个截然不同的科学主题。第一个主题涉及物质在非常高密度下的行为，对应于大爆炸后几分之一秒的条件，当时存在着热的、密集的夸克和胶子的酝酿。RHIC计划的一个目标是通过在非常高的能量下碰撞原子核来重建这些条件。Muhlenberg小组将通过测量一个称为横向能量的量来帮助表征等离子体的一些性质。已经有人提出，横向能量的逐个事件的波动可能是核物质相图中一个临界点的信号。第二个主题涉及寻求从夸克和胶子的基本成分来理解质子的自旋。Muhlenberg小组将在PHENIX探测器的升级中发挥重要作用，该探测器将通过探测质子-质子碰撞过程中发射的所谓W玻色子来更直接地解决这个问题。这项在国家实验室开展的合作活动让学生们接触到了他们在小型学院无法获得的研究经验。它为学生提供新的技能和对科学事业的更好理解，它可以帮助学生在知情的情况下选择职业，无论是在物理还是在其他领域。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Muhlenberg College faculty and students plan to pursue a research program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with scientists around the world. The research program at Muhlenberg College has two distinct science themes. The first theme concerns the behavior of matter at very high density, corresponding to conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when a hot, dense brew of quarks and gluons existed. One goal of the RHIC program is to recreate these conditions via colliding nuclei at very high energies. The Muhlenberg group will help to characterize some of the properties of the plasma by measuring a quantity called transverse energy. It has been proposed that event-by-event fluctuations in the transverse energy could be a signal for a critical point in the phase diagram of nuclear matter.The second theme concerns the quest to understand the spin of the proton in terms of its underlying constituents of quarks and gluons. The Muhlenberg group will play an important role in an upgrade of the PHENIX detector that will more directly address this issue by detecting so-called W bosons emitted during proton-proton collisions. This collaborative activity at a national laboratory exposes students to research experiences they could not otherwise obtain at a small college. It provides students with new skills and a better understanding of the scientific enterprise, and it can help with informed career choices, whether in physics or in other areas.