Novel Phenomena in Quarkonium and Jet Production at High Energy Hadron

Iowa State University, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

A joint research project in theoretical elementary particle physics involving US institutions (Iowa State and SUNY at Stony Brook) and two institutions of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute and Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow) will address the production of "J/Psi" particles in high-energy collisions. Precision calculations of the rate for production of these particles predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force, will be performed. Our ability to measure the J/Psi production rate in both low momentum and high momentum regions makes the J/Psi a unique probe for exploring the strong nuclear force in physical situations where it is neither weak nor extremely strong. The calculations to be carried out are important to the improvement of our understanding of Quantum Chromodynamics and our confidence in it, and to the furthering of our understanding of the strong nuclear force.