Relativistic Heavy Ion Collision Studies at the LHC and RHIC

LHC 和 RHIC 的相对论重离子碰撞研究

• 批准号: 1307188
• 负责人: Thomas Humanic
• 金额: $ 126万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1307188&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Relativistic; Heavy; Ion; Collision; Studies

This award is primarily to carry out experiments with relativistic heavy ion collisions. The principal investigators are T. J. Humanic and M. A. Lisa, of the Department of Physics at The Ohio State University. Our goals for the high-energy program are threefold. Firstly, we will study the space-time properties of the extremely dense matter created at in collisions between heavy nuclei at the highest achievable energies. It is believed that this matter is a quark-gluon plasma (QGP), characterized by colored degrees of freedom at the microscopic scale. The second activity is to study the bulk phase structure of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), believed to be the correct theory of the Strong interaction between partons. This will be achieved by varying the conditions of the collision to lower energies, to probe the transition(s) between confined and deconfined matter. In particular, we plan to perform a novel analysis as a function of the collision energy, measuring coordinate-space anisotropies and dynamics. Thirdly, we will take the tools developed to study bulk physics in heavy ion collisions, and apply them to hadronic(p+p) collisions at similar energies. We will look particularly for collective behaviour(flow) in hadronic collisions. If our initial reports of such flow in ultrarelativistic p+p collisions are confirmed at higher energies, this raises important issues about the nature of flow, and the nature of the initial self-interacting state, itself. In the present grant ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions will be studied with Au-Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), and with Pb-Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva. RHIC started delivering Au-Au collisions in Summer 2000, and the LHC, which is the highest energy heavy ion accelerator now in operation, began delivering Pb-Pb collisions at the end of 2010. In order to look for signatures that a phase transition to Quark Matter has taken place, one must study the properties of the particles produced in the collisions, such as particle momenta and multiplicities of each type that can be detected (e.g. pions, kaons, protons, and more exotic particles). This will be done at both RHIC and the LHC using the large acceptance detectors available in the STAR and ALICE experiments, respectively, which can sample most of the interesting particles per collision. The information obtained in this way can be used to determine, for example, the physical size of the interaction region (using two-particle interferometry), the temperatures reached in the collisions (from particle momentum distributions) and exotic particle production such as strange baryons.Besides the intellectual merit described above, there are broader impacts to society of this proposal in the areas of education, technology and computing. Since undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers will play key roles in this project, training will be provided to these groups in how to carry out research in large collaborations and in general problem solving skills. Since this research requires large-scale computing in order to acquire and analyze data on the teraflop and terabyte scale, new methods in information science, such as computing grid systems, will be developed, which can enhance the computing power of society as a whole.

该奖项主要是进行相对论重离子碰撞的实验。主要研究人员是俄亥俄州立大学物理学系的T. J. Whaneic和M. A. Lisa。我们对高能计划的目标是三倍。 首先，我们将研究以最高可实现的能量在重核之间产生的极度密集物质的时空特性。据信，此问题是夸克 - 胶结等离子体（QGP），其特征是在微观尺度上进行彩色自由度。第二个活性是研究量子染色体动力学（QCD）的块状相结构，被认为是partons之间强相互作用的正确理论。这将通过改变碰撞的条件到较低的能量来实现，以探测约束物质和解污染物之间的过渡。特别是，我们计划进行新的分析作为碰撞能量的函数，测量坐标空间各向异性和动力学。第三，我们将采用开发的工具来研究重离子碰撞中的散装物理，并将其应用于类似能量的辐射（P+P）碰撞。我们将特别研究Hadronic碰撞中的集体行为（流动）。如果我们在更高的能量中确认了超级p+p碰撞中这种流动的初步报道，这将提出有关流动性质以及初始自我相互作用状态本身的重要问题。在目前的赠款中，将在Brookhaven国家实验室（BNL）的相对论重离子撞机（RHIC）以及在Geneva Cern的大型Hadron Collider（LHC）的PB-PB碰撞中研究Au-au碰撞。 RHIC在2000年夏季开始发出AU-AU碰撞，而LHC是目前正在运行的最高能量重离子加速器，在2010年底开始交付PB-PB碰撞。 kaons，质子和更多的外来颗粒）。这将在RHIC和LHC上使用Star和Alice实验中可用的大型接受检测器在RHIC和LHC上完成，这些检测器可以每个碰撞每次碰撞采样大多数有趣的颗粒。以这种方式获得的信息可用于确定相互作用区域的物理大小（使用两粒子干涉法），在碰撞中达到的温度（来自粒子动量分布）和奇异的粒子产量，例如奇怪的baryons.besides上述智力优点，对教育和计算领域的这种建议有更广泛的影响。由于本科生，研究生和博士后研究人员将在该项目中扮演关键角色，因此将向这些小组提供如何在大型合作和一般解决问题的技能方面进行研究。由于这项研究需要大规模计算才能获取和分析Teraflop和Terabyte量表的数据，因此将开发信息科学中的新方法，例如计算网格系统，这可以增强整个社会的计算能力。