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.

在穆伦堡学院，一个欣欣向荣的本科生核物理项目已经建立起来。学生和主要研究者在布鲁克海文国家实验室（BNL）进行夏季研究。在那里，使用相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）的研究沿着两条路线进行。研究的第一步是研究温度和密度极高的核物质，比如在宇宙大爆炸后的百万分之几秒内存在的核物质。在这种条件下，夸克和胶子的热混合物就产生了。RHIC通过高能核的碰撞重现了这些条件。Muhlenberg小组将帮助描述等离子体的一些特性。另一个研究方向是探索质子固有角动量（或自旋）的来源。作为唯一稳定的强子，质子是一个具有基本重要性的系统。质子和中子（统称为核子）构成了宇宙中大部分普通物质的质量。PHENIX已经实现了一个新的硬件升级，一个μ子触发器，来探测反夸克对质子整体自旋的贡献。该小组将对作为升级核心组件的电阻板室（rpc）进行性能研究。这些研究对于保持RPC处于良好的运行状态和参数化RPC性能中的时间依赖性作为离线分析的输入至关重要。通过这次升级收集到的信息将为所谓的自旋谜题的一个重要部分提供答案。这种在国家实验室进行的合作活动使学生获得了在小型学院无法获得的研究经验。它为学生提供了新的技能和对科学事业更好的理解，它可以帮助他们做出明智的职业选择，无论是在物理学还是在其他领域。