Relativistic Heavy Ion Collision Studies at the LHC and RHIC

LHC 和 RHIC 的相对论重离子碰撞研究

• 批准号: 1614835
• 负责人: Thomas Humanic
• 金额: $ 129万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1614835&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Relativistic; Heavy; Ion; Collision; Studies

It is a well-established fact that protons and neutrons are made up of smaller constituents called quarks and gluons. In collisions using two beams of heavy nuclei, a new state of matter is formed, called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This project will answer fundamental questions about the QGP, such as how matter is transformed from a collection of protons and neutrons to a free state where quarks and gluons can travel through space unhindered, much like they did in the primordial soup of matter following the Big Bang. Experiments will be carried out at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), located at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located in Geneva, Switzerland. In order to look for signatures of how the transition to the QGP phase has occurred for a given beam energy, the Ohio State group will study the numbers of particles produced in the collisions along with the distribution and correlations of particle momenta. The goals for the high-energy program are three-fold. Firstly, to study the space-time properties of this extremely dense matter created in collisions between heavy nuclei at the highest achievable energies. The second is to study the bulk phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), believed to be the correct theory of the Strong interaction between quarks and gluons. This will be achieved by varying the conditions of the collision to lower energies, to probe the transition(s) between confined and deconfined matter. In particular, the group will perform a novel analysis as a function of the collision energy, measuring coordinate-space anisotropies and dynamics. Thirdly, they will take the tools developed to study bulk physics in heavy ion collisions, and apply them to proton- proton collisions at similar energies. They will look particularly for collective behavior (flow) in these collisions. If the initial reports of such flow in high-energy p+p collisions are confirmed at higher energies, this raises important issues about the nature of flow, and the nature of the initial self-interacting state, itself. In addition, there are broader impacts to society of this proposal in the areas of education, technology and computing.

众所周知，质子和中子是由更小的夸克和胶子组成的。 在使用两束重核的碰撞中，形成了一种新的物质状态，称为夸克胶子等离子体（QGP）。 这个项目将回答有关QGP的基本问题，例如物质如何从质子和中子的集合转变为自由状态，夸克和胶子可以不受阻碍地穿越空间，就像它们在大爆炸后的物质原始汤中所做的那样。 实验将在位于布鲁克海文国家实验室的相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）和位于瑞士日内瓦的大型强子对撞机（LHC）上进行。 为了寻找给定束流能量如何发生向QGP相转变的特征，俄亥俄州研究小组将研究碰撞中产生的粒子数量，沿着粒子动量的分布和相关性。高能计划的目标有三个方面。首先，研究这种在最高可达到的能量下重核碰撞产生的极致密物质的时空特性。二是研究了被认为是夸克胶子强相互作用的正确理论的量子色动力学（QCD）的体相结构。这将通过将碰撞条件改变为较低能量来实现，以探测受限和非受限物质之间的过渡。特别是，该小组将进行一项新的分析，作为碰撞能量的函数，测量坐标空间各向异性和动力学。第三，他们将采用为研究重离子碰撞中的体物理而开发的工具，并将其应用于类似能量的质子-质子碰撞。他们将特别寻找这些碰撞中的集体行为（流动）。如果在高能p+p碰撞中这种流的最初报道在更高的能量下得到证实，这就提出了关于流的性质以及初始自相互作用态本身的性质的重要问题。 此外，该提案在教育、技术和计算机领域对社会产生了更广泛的影响。