Modification of Heavy Quarkonia Production in Nuclear Collisions

核碰撞中重夸克尼亚产量的改进

• 批准号: 2013115
• 负责人: Anthony Frawley
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2013115&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Modification; Heavy; Quarkonia; Production; Nuclear

We now know that most visible matter is composed of nucleons (protons and neutrons), which in turn are made up of more elementary constituents: quarks and gluons. A new form of matter called the quark-gluon-plasma (QGP) can be created through very energetic collisions of nucleons. This QGP is thought to replicate the conditions in the early Universe a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. This award supports the study of the production of quark-antiquark pairs (mesons, called charmonium and bottomonium) made from heavy quarks in collisions of protons with protons, of protons with gold nuclei, and of gold nuclei with gold nuclei. This will further the understanding of the interactions of heavy quark mesons with the QGP, with the ultimate goal of better understanding the mechanisms that govern the evolution of the strongly interacting QGP, the most strongly coupled liquid ever created. Understanding the QGP is critical to our understanding of the interactions between quarks and gluons. The research will be conducted in large part by graduate students. They will write doctoral dissertations based on the results, under the mentorship of the principal investigator. There will also be significant involvement of undergraduate students in the research, providing them with a good introduction to physics research methods and tools. The research will be conducted using data from collisions at the top Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) collision energy of root(sNN) = 200 GeV, and will focus in two areas. The first area is the study of charmonium production in p+Au collisions using existing data - recorded by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC from p+Au (and 3He+Au) collisions. This research is aimed at better understanding the mechanisms by which charmonium production is modified when it takes place in a nuclear target. That modification is governed by the way that gluons interact inside a nucleus, which is still imperfectly understood. Also, measuring the modification of charmonium production in a target provides a baseline for measurements of charmonium modification by the QGP in Au+Au collisions. The second area is the study of bottomonium production in p+Au and Au+Au collisions using future measurements by the sPHENIX experiment at RHIC. This will further the understanding of bottomonium interactions with the QGP produced in heavy ion collisions. Because charmonium and bottomonium mesons have very different properties, they provide complementary information about interactions within the QGP. The proposed research includes a significant contribution to the development of tracking techniques and software that must be in place before the sPHENIX detector, currently under construction, is commissioned in 2022.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

我们现在知道，最可见的物质是由核子（质子和中子）组成的，而核子（质子和中子）又由更多的基本成分组成：夸克和胶子。 可以通过核子的非常有活力的碰撞来创建一种称为夸克 - 格鲁隆 - 血压（QGP）的物质形式。 人们认为，这种QGP在大爆炸之后的一百万秒内复制了宇宙中的条件。 该奖项支持研究Quark-antiquark对的生产（介子，称为charmon和底部），由质子与质子，具有金核的质子和金核与金核的金核制成。 这将进一步理解重夸克媒介与QGP的相互作用，其最终目标是更好地理解控制强烈相互作用QGP的演变的机制，QGP是有史以来最强的耦合液体。 了解QGP对于我们对夸克与胶子之间相互作用的理解至关重要。这项研究将在很大程度上由研究生进行。在首席研究员的指导下，他们将根据结果撰写博士学位论文。本科生参与研究也将有很大的参与，从而为他们提供了物理研究方法和工具的良好介绍。这项研究将使用来自根部相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）碰撞的数据（SNN）= 200 GEV的数据进行，并将集中在两个领域。第一个领域是使用现有数据研究P+AU碰撞中的Charmonium生产 - 由P+AU（和3HE+AU）碰撞的RhiC记录。这项研究旨在更好地理解炭靶在核靶中时修改炭的生产的机制。这种修饰受胶子在核内相互作用的方式控制，而核心在核中仍然不完整地理解。同样，测量目标中charmonioum的修饰为测量QGP在AU+AU碰撞中测量炭修改的基线。第二个领域是使用RHIC的Sphenix实验的未来测量结果研究P+AU和Au+Au碰撞的研究。这将进一步了解与重离子碰撞中产生的QGP相互作用。由于炭介子和底部介子具有截然不同的特性，因此它们提供了有关QGP中相互作用的互补信息。拟议的研究包括对跟踪技术和软件的开发做出的重大贡献，必须在2022年委托Sphenix探测器（目前正在建设中的Sphenix探测器）之前进行。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来支持的。