RUI: Antiquarks and Ultra-Relativistic Heavy Ions at Muhlenberg College

Muhlenberg College, Allentown PA

Investigators

Abstract

A thriving nuclear physics program for undergraduates at Muhlenberg College has been established. Sourced by activities with the PHENIX Collaboration, students and the primary investigator engage in summer research at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). There, research using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) proceeds along two lines. The first line of inquiry is the study of nuclear matter at very high temperature and density, such as existed a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang. Under these conditions, a hot brew of quarks and gluons is created. RHIC recreates these conditions via the collision of nuclei at very high energies. The Muhlenberg group will help to characterize some of the properties of the plasma. The other line of inquiry is the quest to understand the source of the proton's intrinsic angular momentum (or spin). As the only stable hadron, the proton is a system of fundamental importance. Protons and neutrons (collectively referred to as nucleons) constitute most of the mass of ordinary matter in the universe. PHENIX has implemented a new hardware upgrade, a Muon Trigger, to probe the contribution of antiquarks to the overall spin of the proton. The group will carry out performance studies of the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) that are core components of the upgrade. Such studies are crucial to maintain the RPCs in good operating condition and to parameterize time dependencies in the RPC performance as input to the offline analysis. The information gleaned using this upgrade will supply answers to an important piece of the so-called spin puzzle. This collaborative activity at a national laboratory exposes students to research experiences they could not otherwise obtain at a small college. It provides students with new skills and a better understanding of the scientific enterprise, and it can help with informed career choices, whether in physics or in other areas.