RUI: Studies of Relativistic Heavy Ions Collisions in ALICE at the LHC

在STEM学科成功的本科教育的核心是能够为学生提供实践科学探究的机会，将现代技术的使用与迷人的研究领域联系起来。这笔赠款支持欧洲核子研究组织（CERN）的一项研究计划，利用ALICE实验研究重离子碰撞。欧洲核子研究中心重离子计划的重点是了解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，当时存在夸克和胶子的热而稠密的介质。目标是通过在非常高的能量下碰撞原子核来重现这些条件。芝加哥州立大学（CSU）将通过在两个感兴趣的领域开展工作为ALICE的工作做出贡献：电磁量能计（EMCal）为ALICE带来的射流物理能力，以及ALICE中央桶跟踪和触发探测器升级的研发。在EMCal中探测到的J/Psi喷流的物理分析构成了一个独特的测量方案，以研究质子-质子碰撞中夸克偶素的产生机制以及夸克胶子介质对铅-铅碰撞中喷流能量沉积的响应。另一方面，该集团对ALICE升级的研发贡献将为本科生参与硬件项目提供机会。招募、留住和教育科学、技术、工程和数学学生和教师已被确定为提高科学素养、保持经济增长以及为相关科学发现提供平台的努力的基石。该项目通过巩固CSU的高能实验核物理计划来解决这些问题：（1）使用尖端技术进行高能核物理实验提供了吸引学生和准备学生的有吸引力的机会，（2）国际实验室的合作计划使学生接触到他们无法在本科大学获得的研究经验。由于学生人口的构成，大学的位置和部门目前的推广计划，该计划有可能促进市中心代表性不足的学生进入STEM教育。

At the core of a successful undergraduate education in STEM disciplines is the capacity to offer students the opportunity to practice scientific inquiry that connects the use of modern technology to captivating areas of research. This grant supports a research program to study Heavy Ion Collisions at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) with the ALICE experiment. The focus of the Heavy Ion program at CERN is to understand the behavior of matter at very high density, corresponding to conditions a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, when a hot, dense medium of quarks and gluons existed. The goal is to recreate these conditions via colliding nuclei at very high energies. Chicago State University (CSU) will contribute to the ALICE effort by working on two areas of interest: the jet physics capabilities brought to ALICE by the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal), and R&D for the upgrade of ALICE's central barrel tracking and trigger detectors. The physics analysis of J/Psi jets detected in the EMCal that is included in the project constitutes a unique program of measurements to investigate the production mechanism of quarkonia in proton-proton collisions and the response of quark gluon medium to jet energy deposition in lead-lead collisions. On the other hand the group's R&D contribution to the upgrade of ALICE will provide opportunities for the involvement of undergraduate students in hardware projects.Recruiting, retaining, and educating science, technology, engineering and mathematics students and teachers has been identified as the cornerstone in the effort to improve scientific literacy, maintain economic growth, and to provide the platform for relevant scientific discoveries. This project addresses these issues by consolidating a high-energy experimental nuclear physics program at CSU: (1) The use of cutting-edge technology for high-energy nuclear physics experiments provides an attractive opportunity to captivate and prepare students, (2) A collaborative program at an international laboratory exposes students to research experiences they could not otherwise obtain at an undergraduate university. Because of the make-up of the student population, the location of the university and the current outreach programs of the department, this program has the potential to promote inner-city underrepresented students into STEM education.