The Nature of Strongly-interacting Matter across the QCD Phase Diagram

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Jamie Karthein is awarded an NSF Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Karthein will develop and improve a theoretical equation of state for Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) matter, benchmarked by data from relativistic heavy ion collisions, in particular the beam energy scan at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Along with this research, Karthein will curate a workshop serieson leadership skills for minorities in STEM at MIT in collaboration with the MIT Institute Community and Equity Office and establish a Graduate School Mentorship program in partnership with the MIT Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers for MIT undergraduates in STEM.The proposed research will lead to an increased understanding of the fundamental strong interaction, one of the four forces of nature. The strong force is responsible for binding together the protons and neutrons, collectively hadrons, occurring in our universe today. By understanding the medium produced in Heavy Ion Colliders (HICs), scientists study the primordial liquid of the universe, the Quark-Gluon Plasma, and as a result, the mechanism by which quarks and gluons combine to form hadrons. Results on the QCD phase diagram are impactful for the astrophysics community for studies of neutron-star mergers. Additionally, the extreme matter created in HICs can also inform other fields of research on strongly coupled systems, including ultra-cold atomic gases in magneto-optical traps.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.