CAREER: New Theoretical Developments in High Energy Nuclear Collisions

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。早期宇宙在创建后的第一个实例中，充满了由夸克、轻子和胶子组成的非常热和稠密的物质汤。当宇宙膨胀和冷却时，但距离大爆炸只有几毫秒的时候，夸克和胶子突然凝聚成质子和中子，最终构成了我们周围所有化学元素的原子核。这个过程(称为QCD相变)和热而致密的原始物质(称为夸克胶子等离子体)，现在可以在实验室中通过具有非常大能量的重原子核的碰撞来重建。这样的实验在美国的相对论重离子对撞机(RHIC)和欧洲的大型强子对撞机(LHC)上进行。在这个提议中，PI开发了一些工具，使我们能够(A)了解夸克胶子等离子体是如何在核碰撞中形成的，以及(B)如何测试它的性质。第一部分很重要，将我们想要研究的新阶段(夸克胶子等离子体)与实验室中的产生机制(核碰撞)分开。这最终将使我们能够以比以前更高的精度来确定夸克胶子等离子体的重要性质和QCD相变的性质。第二部分研究如何使用能够穿透这种致密物质的探测器，即光子和所谓的QCD喷流，对夸克胶子等离子体和所有核物质进行层析成像。这是一种在定性水平上有效的现有方法，但通过计划中的研究，精确度将得到显著提高。这项提议还包括一项外展计划，该计划将通过邀请高中教师参与并增加互动部分来加强德克萨斯农工大学现有的周六早晨物理计划。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The very early universe, in the first instance after its creation, was filled with a very hot and dense soup of matter, consisting of quarks, leptons and gluons. When the universe expanded and cooled, but still just milliseconds after the Big Bang, quarks and gluons suddenly condensed into protons and neutrons which eventually made up the nuclei of all the chemical elements around us. This process (called the QCD phase transition) and the hot and dense primordial matter (called the Quark Gluon Plasma), can be recreated nowadays in the laboratory in collisions of heavy nuclei with very large energies. Such experiments take place at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the US and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe.In this proposal the PI develops tools that will allow us to (a) understand how a Quark Gluon Plasma is formed in nuclear collisions, and (b) how its properties can be tested. The first part is important to separate the new phase that we want to study (the Quark Gluon Plasma) from the creation mechanism in the lab (the nuclear collision). This should eventually allow us to determine important properties of Quark Gluon Plasma and the nature of the QCD phase transition to much higher accuracy than before. The second part studies how probes which can penetrate this dense matter, photons and so-called QCD jets, can be used for a tomography of Quark Gluon Plasma and all nuclear matter. This is an existing method which works on a qualitative level, but will be dramatically improved in precision through the planned research.This proposal also includes an outreach program which will enhance the existing Saturday Morning Physics program at Texas A&M University by involving high school teachers and adding interactive components.