RUI: Commissioning, Operations, and Data Analysis of the ALICE Fast Interaction Trigger Detector for LHC Run 3

欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）大型强子对撞机（LHC）的ALICE实验致力于研究被称为夸克胶子等离子体（QGP）的强相互作用核物质，它是在重离子的高能碰撞中产生的。作为一项长达数十年的国际合作的一部分，爱丽丝帮助揭示了宇宙大爆炸后百万分之一秒的宇宙本质。在过去的几年里，PI和她的本科生团队为ALICE（快速交互触发（FIT）探测器）的重要升级的设计、测试和构建做出了贡献。FIT将使ALICE能够在LHC运行3期间有效地选择最有趣的碰撞进行进一步分析。该合同允许PI在探测器初始部署期间帮助其安装、调试和操作，从而继续她的工作。与他们的合作者一起，PI和她的学生将帮助调试，监测和分析探测器的性能，以帮助ALICE探索强核相互作用理论的基本原理。这些结果将有助于更深入地了解物质的原始组成。该奖项将允许学生为高能核物理实验的尖端仪器的开发和部署做出贡献，并在与国际知名科学家和工程师合作进行有史以来最大的加速器实验之一时积累经验和技术技能。招聘、留住和教育科学、技术、工程和数学学生和教师对于提高科学素养、保持经济增长和继续科学发现至关重要。在大爆炸后不到百万分之一秒的时间里，宇宙充满了一种由夸克和胶子组成的热而致密的介质，这种介质被称为夸克胶子等离子体（QGP）。控制这种介质内部相互作用的基本理论被称为量子色动力学（QCD）。关于QCD的几个最重要的方面，如部分-强子跃迁、约束的性质以及QCD物质在高温下的行为，仍然存在一些重要的开放问题。欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）大型强子对撞机（LHC）重离子项目的重点是了解这种QGP物质在非常高的温度和密度下的行为。ALICE是专门用于这项研究的实验，已经发表了近300篇文章，详细介绍了它的发现。在大型强子对撞机第二次长时间停机进行关键维护和亮度升级期间，ALICE对其仪器的许多方面进行了升级，以利用这些改进。特别是，ALICE快速相互作用触发探测器（FIT）的升级将为ALICE在LHC开始第三次物理运行时选择罕见事件提供前所未有的触发判别。具体来说，FIT将改进对重味强子、热光子和低质量双电子的探测，以及对重离子碰撞早期产生的喷流的表征。这些QGP的硬探针将使实验验证难以捉摸的QCD原理，如渐近自由，手性对称恢复和约束。我们不仅会对物质的原始组成有更深入的了解，而且还会对早期宇宙的宇宙学演化有更全面的了解。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。

The ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is dedicated to the study of the strongly interacting nuclear matter known as the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), which is produced in high energy collisions of heavy ions. As part of a decades-long international collaboration, ALICE has helped reveal the nature of the Universe as it was just a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. Over the past several years, the PI and her team of undergraduate students have contributed to the design, testing, and construction of an essential upgrade to ALICE, the Fast Interaction Trigger (FIT) detector. FIT will enable ALICE to efficiently select the most interesting collisions for further analysis during LHC Run 3. This award allows the PI to continue her work by helping with the installation, commissioning, and operation of the detector during its initial deployment. Together with their collaborators, the PI and her students will help commission, monitor, and analyze the detector’s performance to help ALICE explore fundamental principles of the theory of strong nuclear interactions. These results will help build a deeper understanding of the primordial composition of matter. This award will allow students to contribute to the development and deployment of cutting-edge instrumentation for high-energy nuclear physics experiments and build experience and technical skills while collaborating with renowned international scientists and engineers on one of the largest accelerator experiments ever conducted. Recruiting, retaining, and educating science, technology, engineering and mathematics students and teachers are critical to advancing scientific literacy, maintaining economic growth, and continuing scientific discoveries. Less than a millionth of a second after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a hot, dense medium of quarks and gluons termed a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). The fundamental theory governing the interactions within this medium is known as Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD). There remain important open questions about several of QCD’s most important aspects, such as the parton-hadron transition, the nature of confinement, and the behavior of QCD matter at high temperature. The focus of the Heavy Ion program at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is to understand the behavior of this QGP matter at very high temperature and density. ALICE is the experiment dedicated to this study and has published nearly 300 articles detailing its findings. During the second long shutdown of the LHC for critical maintenance and luminosity upgrades, ALICE has upgraded many aspects of its instrumentation to take advantage of these improvements. In particular, the ALICE Fast Interaction Trigger detector (FIT) upgrade will provide ALICE unprecedented trigger discrimination for selecting rare events when the LHC commences its third physics run. Specifically, FIT will improve the detection of heavy-flavor hadrons, of thermal photons and low-mass di-electrons, and the characterization of jets created in the early stages of heavy ion collisions. These hard probes of the QGP will enable experimental verification of elusive QCD principles, such as asymptotic freedom, chiral symmetry restoration, and confinement. Not only will we gain a deeper understanding of the primordial composition of matter but we will develop a more complete picture of the cosmological evolution of the early universe.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.