Comprehensive Investigation of Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions at RHIC and the LHC

RHIC 和 LHC 超相对论重离子碰撞的综合研究

• 批准号: 238527-2013
• 负责人: Jeon, Sangyong
• 金额: $ 5.46万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=570439
• 关键词: Comprehensive; Investigation; Ultra; Relativistic; Heavy

In normal nuclear matter, quarks and gluons which constitute protons and neutrons, are permanently confined inside the hadrons. When temperature reaches trillions of kelvin, this is no longer true. At these extremely high temperatures, space is so packed with thermally produced hadrons that an individual hadron can no longer maintain the integrity of its confinement. In effect, ordinary nuclear matter "melts'' and releases the quarks and gluons. The liberated quarks and gluons then form a new state of matter called the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). This extreme state of matter existed in nature only about a microsecond after the Big-Bang. For the past 2 decades, relativistic heavy ion colliders at CERN in Europe and at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US have been colliding heavy nuclei to create and characterize QGP. By now, the experiments have accumulated an ample amount of evidence that the sought-after QGP is indeed being created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. Many of the properties found in the experimental evidence were, however, highly surprising. For example, this hottest and densest matter ever created may also be one of the most strongly interacting systems ever observed, flowing more ideally than the superfluid Helium! There have been intense theoretical investigations on these properties by many groups in the world. However, there are still many important puzzles that await theoretical resolution even as the LHC at CERN is beginning to accumulate a tremendous amount of new data at an unprecedentedly high colliding energy. A comprehensive understanding of QGP in heavy ion collisions calls for a remarkable range of theoretical arsenals. This includes classical Yang-Mills theory, relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in 3+1D and a hadronic molecular dynamics simulations. This is an ambitious goal, but at this point, I am one of the very few in the world who is capable of marshaling all the necessary tools. In this proposal, I propose to carry out comprehensive characterization of QGP in heavy ion collisions with all the theoretical tools I and my students can employ.

在正常的核物质中，构成质子和中子的夸克和胶子永久地被限制在强子内部。当温度达到数万亿开尔文时，情况就不再是这样了。在这些极高的温度下，太空中充斥着热产生的强子，以至于单个强子不再能保持其禁闭的完整性。实际上，普通的核物质“熔化”，释放出夸克和胶子。然后，释放出来的夸克和胶子形成一种新的物质状态，称为夸克胶子等离子体(QGP)。这种极端状态的物质在大爆炸后大约一微秒就存在于自然界中。 在过去的20年里，欧洲核子研究中心的相对论重离子对撞机和美国布鲁克海文国家实验室的相对论重离子对撞机一直在对撞重核，以创建和表征QGP。到目前为止，这些实验已经积累了大量的证据，证明人们追逐的QGP确实是在相对论重离子碰撞中产生的。然而，在实验证据中发现的许多特性都非常令人惊讶。例如，这种有史以来最热、最密集的物质也可能是所观察到的最强相互作用的系统之一，它的流动比超流体氦更理想！国际上许多团体对这些性质进行了密集的理论研究。然而，尽管欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机以前所未有的高碰撞能量开始积累大量新数据，但仍有许多重要的谜题等待理论上的解决。 要全面理解重离子碰撞中的QGP，需要有大量的理论依据。这包括经典的Yang-Mills理论、3+1维相对论粘性流体力学和强子分子动力学模拟。这是一个雄心勃勃的目标，但在这一点上，我是世界上极少数有能力组织所有必要工具的人之一。在这个提议中，我提议用我和我的学生可以使用的所有理论工具对重离子碰撞中的QGP进行全面的表征。