Dynamical Aspects of the Quark Gluon Plasma

  • Noronha-hostler, Jacquelyn J. (PI)

Project Details

Description

Shortly after the Big Bang the entire universe was filled with a nearly perfect fluid, known as the Quark Gluon Plasma. Relativistic heavy ion collisions can now reproduce this fluid in the laboratory. The Quark Gluon Plasma exhibits a rapid, but smooth cross-over phase transition into hadrons at vanishing net-baryon densities. Recent experiments plan to explore finite baryon densities, where a critical point is expected. If found, this would mark the first discovery of a critical point in a relativistic system described by a fundamental theory of nature, which would have far-reaching consequences for high-energy nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics (such as in neutron star mergers). Characteristic temperatures of equilibrium (e.g. the inflection point of the entropy density) and transport coefficients (e.g. the minimum of the shear viscosity over entropy density) vary widely at a cross-over phase transition, but converge at a critical point. Extracting the behavior of these characteristic temperatures is a major focal point of this research. Specifically, the interplay between strange and light hadrons is exploited to study the flavor hierarchy in the cross-over region. To investigate this, a viscous relativistic hydrodynamics framework with two conserved charges is being developed into a new open-source code, along with initial conditions that contain baryon number and strangeness. Flow observables sensitive to the equation of state and transport coefficients are calculated across beam energies. New techniques are developed to study this flavor hierarchy from first principles and to extract the characteristic temperatures from experimental data. Through the new dynamical framework, this project provides essential guidance to the Beam Energy Scan II runs at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider and the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Germany in the search for the Quantum Chromodynamic critical point and subsequent investigation of the baryon-rich Quark Gluon Plasma.

StatusFinished
Effective start/end date9/1/188/15/19

Funding

  • Nuclear Physics: $40,429.00

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