Probing the Quark Gluon Plasma with Jet Tomography

Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Brunswick NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental theory of the strong nuclear force, predicts the existence of a novel state of matter with liberated quarks and gluons known as the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). During ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, nuclei melt into fundamental constituents, forming a QGP. At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), this unique form of matter was discovered to behave like a nearly perfect liquid. Nuclear physicists continue to explore new regions of this phase transition and to reveal its detailed signatures, with RHIC providing the widest range of collision energies and systems and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) reaching the highest temperatures and energy densities. This award will support the PI's research on quantitatively characterizing properties of this hot QCD matter through a study of energetic quarks and gluons in collisions at LHC and RHIC. The PI will combine active research with outreach and education to increase minority participation in STEM careers, including nuclear physics. The PI will measure discriminative jet observables in relativistic heavy ion collisions along with their reference collisions. To map out the phase diagram at varying length scales, the PI and her group will measure center of mass energy dependence of jet shapes and heavy flavor quark jets at lower kinematic regions where the mass effects are expected to be non-negligible. By finalizing the small radii dependence of inclusive jets at large kinematic range, the PI will improve the pp baseline for 5 TeV collisions to distinguish between competing physics mechanisms of parton energy loss. These complementary and robust measurements will determine key features of the QGP including thermodynamical and transport coefficient of plasma, how the hot QCD medium responds to jet energy loss, and how it affects jet structures. The PI will foster a diverse and competitive work force by emphasizing the education of female and underrepresented minority students in STEM majors in general, and nuclear physics in particular, via integration of education with active research. To reduce the loss of potential students of all ages, she will encourage female middle and high school students to pursue university education in STEM fields by bringing them to Rutgers, recruit undergraduate physics majors by incorporating forefront high energy nuclear physics research into her introductory physics courses, and mentor women and underrepresented minority students and include them in all phases of research. 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.