Phenomenology for High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

最近在密歇根州立大学回旋加速器，欧洲核子研究中心的SPS和布鲁克海文国家实验室的RHIC的实验承诺创造足够的热量供应的条件，以溶解成成分质子和中子的回旋能量的核物质，并在大型设施蒸发成成分夸克和胶子。 在这些更高的能量下，真空本身的结构实际上应该在整个核体积中短暂融化。 由于这些碰撞导致从单个事件中发射出数千个亚原子粒子，因此各种实验观测值和信号的承诺至关重要地取决于有关探测器的几何形状，接受度和分辨率的实验细节。 通过与实验组密切合作，并通过仔细建模的碰撞和实验响应，我们希望解决几个悬而未决的问题，这些基本相变的性质。

Recent experiments at the Michigan State cyclotron, the SPS at CERN, and future experiments at RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory promise to create conditions where enough heat is supplied to dissolve nuclear matter into constituent protons and neutrons at cyclotron energies, and to vaporize the matter into constituent quarks and gluons at the large facilities. At these higher energies, the structure of the vacuum itself should actually melt for a brief instant throughout the nuclear volume. Since these collisions result in the emission of thousands of subatomic particles from a single event, the promise of various experimental observables and signals depends crucially on experimental details regarding the geometry, acceptance and resolution of the detectors. By collaborating closely with experimental groups and by carefully modeling the collisions and the experimental response, we hope to resolve several outstanding questions regarding the nature of these fundamental phase transitions.