New Directions in High Energy Nuclear Physics

在自然界的四种基本力量中，强大的核力量是最不为人所知的。它驱动着宇宙中许多对我们的生存至关重要的过程。强核力的一个特别重要的方面是夸克胶子等离子体的存在。如果普通物质被加热到比太阳核心更热的约1,000,000,000度，原子和分子将不复存在，甚至原子核内的质子和中子也会融化。剩下的夸克和胶子的原始汤汁充满了非常早期的宇宙。我们可以在我们最大的粒子对撞机上通过相互撞击重原子核来重建夸克胶子等离子体。欧洲大型强子对撞机和美国相对论重离子对撞机的实验项目研究夸克胶子等离子体的性质。该项目将支持将提高我们对核碰撞中夸克胶子等离子体的形成和性质的理解的研究。PI和他的合作者将使用计算机模拟和先进的统计方法来实现这一目标。提供资金支持对核科学研究生和初级科学家的培训。核碰撞中的夸克胶子等离子体来自于最初在核碰撞中产生的高度复杂的胶子场。PI和他的团队将通过研究夸克胶子等离子体液滴的角动量与碰撞核的初始角动量之间的关系来研究这些场及其性质。同样的胶子场也将通过它们与快夸克的相互作用来研究。PI和他的团队将能够使用JETSCAPE框架来进行大规模的核碰撞计算模拟。他们将研究喷流和重夸克在夸克胶子等离子体中被淬灭的各个方面。然后，他们将使用多个约束条件提取夸克胶子等离子体的性质。例如，夸克和重夸克的猝灭强度和夸克胶子等离子体的粘度可以独立测量，并相互关联。测试这些关系将是深入理解夸克胶子等离子体动力学的重要一步。PI和他的团队还将使用先进的统计方法和应用于数据的机器学习来理解夸克和胶子形成强子的机制。这些结果将用于改进强子化过程的最新建模，这是许多计算的关键输入。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Among the four fundamental forces in nature the strong nuclear force stands out for being the least understood one. It drives many processes in the universe that are crucial for our existence. One particularly important aspect of the strong nuclear force is the existence of quark gluon plasma. If ordinary matter is heated up to temperatures of about 1,000,000,000,000 degrees, hotter than the core of the sun, atoms and molecules cease to exist and even protons and neutrons inside atomic nuclei melt. The remaining primordial soup of quarks and gluons filled the very early universe. We can recreate quark gluon plasma in our largest particle colliders by smashing heavy nuclei into each other. Experimental programs at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in the USA study the properties of quark gluon plasma. This project will support research that will improve our understanding of the formation and properties of quark gluon plasma in nuclear collisions. The PI and his collaborators will use computer simulations and advanced statistical methods to reach this goal. Funding is provided to support training for a graduate students and junior scientists in nuclear science.Quark gluon plasma in nuclear collisions emerges from the highly complex gluon fields that are initially created in nuclear collisions. The PI and his group will investigate these fields and their properties by studying how angular momentum of the droplets of quark gluon plasma is related to the initial angular momentum of the colliding nuclei. The same gluon fields will also be studied through their interaction with fast quarks. The PI and his group will be able to use the JETSCAPE framework for large scale computational simulations of nuclear collisions. They will study various aspects of jets and heavy quarks being quenched in quark gluon plasma. They will then extract properties of quark gluon plasma using multiple constraints. For example, the strength of quenching of quarks and heavy quarks, and the viscosity of quark gluon plasma can be independently measured and are mutually related. Testing these relations will be an important step towards a deeper understanding of the dynamics of quark gluon plasma. The PI and his group will also use advanced statistical methods and machine learning applied to data to understand the mechanisms of hadron formation from quarks and gluons. These results will be used to improve the state-of-the-art modeling of the hadronization process that is a crucial input to many calculations.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.