Relativistic Heavy Ion Theory

Wayne State University, Detroit MI

Investigators

Abstract

At the dawn of the universe, just an instant after the Big Bang, everything that now exists was packed into an incredibly tiny space - a space that was expanding like a balloon in every direction at the speed of light. For these first few moments, the entire universe was made of a substance known as quark-gluon plasma, a soup of elementary particles that soon coalesced into the larger particles, and finally the atoms that we know today. This research focuses on the re-creation of these conditions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in New York and the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. These colliders smash nuclei together, producing tiny fleeting quantities of quark gluon plasma. By studying the fluid characteristics of this plasma using mathematical models, we hope to explain what is seen at these massive colliders. By extension, this knowledge will help us understand what the early universe was like and how it came to be what it is today. I am especially excited to be sharing this research with disadvantaged students in Detroit through a program aimed at students who are studying to become teachers.