Probing the Quark Gluon Plasma with Jet Tomography

量子色动力学（QCD）是强核力的基础理论，它预测了一种具有释放夸克和胶子的物质的新状态的存在，即夸克-胶子等离子体（QGP）。在超相对论的重离子碰撞中，原子核熔化成基本成分，形成QGP。在相对论重离子对撞机（RHIC）中，这种独特形式的物质被发现表现得像一种近乎完美的液体。核物理学家继续探索这一相变的新区域，并揭示其详细特征，RHIC提供了最广泛的碰撞能量和系统，大型强子对撞机（LHC）达到了最高的温度和能量密度。该奖项将支持PI通过对LHC和RHIC碰撞中的高能夸克和胶子的研究来定量表征这种热QCD物质的特性。PI将把积极的研究与外展和教育结合起来，以增加少数族裔对包括核物理在内的STEM职业的参与。PI将测量相对论性重离子碰撞及其参考碰撞中可观测到的判别喷流。为了绘制出不同长度尺度的相图，PI和她的团队将在较低的运动区域测量射流形状和重味夸克射流的质心能量依赖，在那里质量效应预计是不可忽略的。通过确定包含射流在大运动范围内的小半径依赖性，PI将改善5tev碰撞的pp基线，以区分部分子能量损失的竞争物理机制。这些互补和可靠的测量将确定QGP的关键特征，包括等离子体的热力学和输运系数，热QCD介质如何响应射流能量损失，以及它如何影响射流结构。PI将通过将教育与积极的研究相结合，强调对STEM专业，特别是核物理专业的女性和代表性不足的少数民族学生的教育，从而培养一支多样化和有竞争力的劳动力队伍。为了减少所有年龄段潜在学生的流失，她将鼓励女性初中和高中学生进入罗格斯大学，在STEM领域接受大学教育，将前沿高能核物理研究纳入她的物理入门课程，招收物理学本科专业的学生，并指导女性和未被充分代表的少数民族学生，并将他们纳入研究的各个阶段。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force, predicts the existence of a novel state of matter with liberated quarks and gluons known as the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). During ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, nuclei melt into fundamental constituents, forming a QGP. At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), this unique form of matter was discovered to behave like a nearly perfect liquid. Nuclear physicists continue to explore new regions of this phase transition and to reveal its detailed signatures, with RHIC providing the widest range of collision energies and systems and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reaching the highest temperatures and energy densities. This award will support the PI's research on quantitatively characterizing properties of this hot QCD matter through a study of energetic quarks and gluons in collisions at LHC and RHIC. The PI will combine active research with outreach and education to increase minority participation in STEM careers, including nuclear physics.The PI will measure discriminative jet observables in relativistic heavy ion collisions along with their reference collisions. To map out the phase diagram at varying length scales, the PI and her group will measure center of mass energy dependence of jet shapes and heavy flavor quark jets at lower kinematic regions where the mass effects are expected to be non-negligible. By finalizing the small radii dependence of inclusive jets at large kinematic range, the PI will improve the pp baseline for 5 TeV collisions to distinguish between competing physics mechanisms of parton energy loss. These complementary and robust measurements will determine key features of the QGP including thermodynamical and transport coefficient of plasma, how the hot QCD medium responds to jet energy loss, and how it affects jet structures. The PI will foster a diverse and competitive work force by emphasizing the education of female and underrepresented minority students in STEM majors in general, and nuclear physics in particular, via integration of education with active research. To reduce the loss of potential students of all ages, she will encourage female middle and high school students to pursue university education in STEM fields by bringing them to Rutgers, recruit undergraduate physics majors by incorporating forefront high energy nuclear physics research into her introductory physics courses, and mentor women and underrepresented minority students and include them in all phases of research.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.