Speaker
Description
The quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is a novel state of matter that existed in the first microseconds after the Big Bang and is recreated in heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies. Recent observations of QGP-like signatures in small collision systems, including proton + heavy-ion, have raised fundamental questions about the onset of collective behavior. One key signature conspicuously absent from these systems, however, is the suppression of high-momentum particle yields. Last year, we provided theoretical predictions from our perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD)-based model for this suppression due to partonic energy loss in plasmas formed by light-ion collisions. This suppression was subsequently measured in the collisions of oxygen ions and found to be in good agreement with our blind predictions. Here, we propose extending the light-ion program to even lighter systems—${}^{10}\mathrm{B}+{}^{10}\mathrm{B}$, ${}^{6}\mathrm{Li}+{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}$, ${}^{4}\mathrm{He}+{}^{4}\mathrm{He}$, and ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}+{}^{3}\mathrm{He}$—to further probe the puzzle of high-momentum particle suppression in small systems. Comparing our partonic energy loss predictions against state-of-the-art pQCD baseline calculations, we find that ${}^{3}\mathrm{He}+{}^{3}\mathrm{He}$ and ${}^{6}\mathrm{Li}+{}^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ offer especially clean environments for isolating measurable partonic energy loss in extremely small collision systems. We argue that such measurements would constitute evidence for the smallest droplet of collectively behaving matter ever observed.
| Apply for student award at which level: | PhD |
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| Consent on use of personal information: Abstract Submission | Yes, I ACCEPT |