Experiments

We currently have teams working on two major heavy ion collision experiments.
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STAR

The Solenoidal Tracker At RHIC (STAR) will search for signatures of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation and investigate the behavior of strongly interacting matter at high energy density. The emphasis will be the correlation of many observables on an event-by-event basis.
The OSU Heavy Ion research group helped to develop the Silicon Vertex Tracker for the STAR experiment at RHIC. The Silicon Vertex Tracker uses Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) technology. The group also works to develop Monte-Carlo simulations of the detectors physics capabilities and write code for physics analysis. “Recent” results from the OSU group can seen here.

ALICE

ALICE, A Large IonĀ Collider Experiment, is the only dedicated heavy ion collider approved by CERN for the LHC.
This experiment is designed to study matter at high energy densities. By increasing the energy density, either by increasing the temperature and/or the matter density, we expect to pass through a point where the description of matter can not be described as a bunch of protons, neutrons, pions, or other such “detectable” particles.
At a sufficiently high energy density the quarks and gluons that make up these “detectable” particles can no longer be associated with a particular proton, neutron, pion, or the like.
At this point a new phase of matter, much like an atomic plasma, will exist. The new phase of matter is called a Quark Gluon Plasma. The LHC, by colliding heavier and more energetic nuclei than ever before, will be in a unique position of having a lower baryon density in it’s mid-rapidity region.
This is expected to make it easier to compare the measurements we expect to get from ALICE to theories which are much more difficult to solve with a nonzero baryon density. Here at OSU we are involved in the software simulation of ALICE with specific responsibilities regarding the ITS software development.

A description of some of the work OSU has done for ALICE is described here. A number of photo can also be found through links there as well.

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