RUI: Antiquarks and Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ions at Muhlenberg College

RUI：穆伦伯格学院的反夸克和超相对论重离子

• 批准号: 1209240
• 负责人: Brett Fadem
• 金额: $ 16.2万
• 依托单位: Muhlenberg College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1209240&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Antiquarks; Ultra; Relativistic; Heavy

A thriving nuclear physics program for undergraduates at Muhlenberg College has been established. Sourced by activities with the PHENIX Collaboration, students and the primary investigator engage in summer research at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). There, research using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) proceeds along two lines. The first line of inquiry is the study of nuclear matter at very high temperature and density, such as existed a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang. Under these conditions, a hot brew of quarks and gluons is created. RHIC recreates these conditions via the collision of nuclei at very high energies. The Muhlenberg group will help to characterize some of the properties of the plasma. The other line of inquiry is the quest to understand the source of the proton's intrinsic angular momentum (or spin). As the only stable hadron, the proton is a system of fundamental importance. Protons and neutrons (collectively referred to as nucleons) constitute most of the mass of ordinary matter in the universe. PHENIX has implemented a new hardware upgrade, a Muon Trigger, to probe the contribution of antiquarks to the overall spin of the proton. The group will carry out performance studies of the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) that are core components of the upgrade. Such studies are crucial to maintain the RPCs in good operating condition and to parameterize time dependencies in the RPC performance as input to the offline analysis. The information gleaned using this upgrade will supply answers to an important piece of the so-called spin puzzle. 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.

已经建立了一项针对穆伦贝格学院的本科生的蓬勃发展的核物理计划。通过与Phenix合作的活动来源，学生和主要研究人员在布鲁克黑文国家实验室（BNL）进行夏季研究。在那里，使用相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）的研究沿两条线进行。第一线的询问是在非常高的温度和密度下研究核物质，例如大爆炸后几分之一的存在。在这些条件下，创建了夸克和胶子的热冲泡。 RHIC通过非常高能量的核碰撞来重现这些条件。 Muhlenberg组将有助于表征血浆的某些特性。另一条查询是要了解质子内在的角动量（或自旋）的来源。作为唯一稳定的强子，质子是一种基本重要性的系统。质子和中子（统称为核子）构成了宇宙中大部分普通物质。 Phenix已实施了一种新的硬件升级，即MUON触发器，以探测Antiquarks对质子整体旋转的贡献。 该小组将对升级的核心组成部分进行电阻板室（RPC）的性能研究。此类研究对于将RPC保持良好的工作状态至关重要，并且可以将RPC性能中的时间依赖性作为离线分析的输入。使用此升级收集的信息将为所谓的旋转难题提供重要的答案。在国家实验室的这种合作活动使学生接触了他们在一所小大学无法获得的研究经验。它为学生提供了新技能和对科学企业的更好理解，并且可以帮助您做出明智的职业选择，无论是物理学还是在其他领域。