1. Quark Gluon Plasmas Saturday Physics Series University of Colorado at Boulder March 19, 2005 Professor Jamie Nagle Department of Physics

2. Over 14 billion years ago, our universe began with the Big Bang. Back then the universe was very, very hot.

3. 212 degrees Fahrenheit Boiling temperature for water – well not quite in Boulder.

4. Already at these temperatures, interesting things are happening. solidliquidgas

5. 2200 degrees Fahrenheit Molten rock from volcanoes.

6. 10 million degrees Fahrenheit. Temperature at the Center of the Sun. Very interesting nuclear processes going on there.

7. 10 trillion degrees Fahrenheit. 10,000,000,000,000 Temperature a fraction of a second after the Big Bang! What happens at temperatures like these?

9. Start with the Basics Oxygen Nucleus Atoms are the basic building blocks. They are made from a positively charged nucleus with neutrons and protons and negatively charged electrons in orbit. Helium Atom

10. Alchemy Different elements have properties dictated by the number of orbit electrons which is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus (to make a neutral atom). People have wanted to change Lead (Pb) into Gold (Au) for a long time.

11. Chain Reaction Nuclear fission n + 235 U  140 Ce + 94 Zr + n + n Nuclear fission reactions can produce energy. If they produce two neutrons, these neutrons can induce more reactions and thus create a chain reaction. Each reaction frees about 10 -11 Joules. But 200 grams of Uranium has 10 23 atoms.

12. Much Higher Energy If we collide nuclei at much higher energy, they no longer chain react. No $, but probably a good thing. What happens to nuclear matter at the highest temperatures? We don’t just change lead to gold. We can see what is inside the protons and neutrons.

13. Quarks are Inside Proton (charge = +1) Neutron (charge = 0) 2 up quarks (+2/3 charge) 1 down quark (-1/3 charge) 1 up quarks (+2/3 charge) 2 down quark (-1/3 charge) Up Down Strange Charm Bottom Top “Three quarks on a lark.” James Joyce

20. Outline What are the goals of our experiments? What are the goals of our experiments? How do we conduct these experiments? How do we conduct these experiments? Can we make $ from what we find? Can we make $ from what we find? Do we learn something fundamental? Do we learn something fundamental? Will we destroy the world in the process? Will we destroy the world in the process?

22. Phase Transition Odd observation in nature. We never see free individual quarks. They are always in groups like in protons (3). Quarks held together by strong force. Has property like springs !

23. Transitions of the Early Universe Post Inflation, radiation yields quark-gluon plasma. Six microseconds after the Big Bang, all quarks and gluons are confined into hadrons. One second later, light nuclei are formed. 300,000 years later, atoms are formed.

24. A Short Flight Away…...

25. Nuclear Collider

26. Gold + Gold Collisions Time Evolution We accelerate Gold nuclear up to 99.995% the speed of light. Then we collide two beams to convert the massive kinetic energy into heat to create a small quark plasma.

27. Plasma Explodes and Cools

29. Complex Detectors

30. USA Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY University of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA University of Colorado, Boulder, CO Columbia University, Nevis Laboratories, Irvington, NY Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, IL Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory, Ames, IA Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM Dept. of Chemistry, Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY Dept. Phys. and Astronomy, Stony Brook Univ., Stony Brook, NY Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN Brazil University of São Paulo, São Paulo China Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing Peking University, Beijing France LPC, University de Clermont-Ferrand, Clermont-Ferrand Dapnia, CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette IPN-Orsay, Universite Paris Sud, CNRS-IN2P3, Orsay LLR, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS-IN2P3, Palaiseau SUBATECH, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, CNRS-IN2P3, Univ. Nantes Germany University of Münster, Münster Hungary Central Research Institute for Physics (KFKI), Budapest Debrecen University, Debrecen Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest India Banaras Hindu University, Banaras Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay Israel Weizmann Institute, Rehovot Japan Center for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo, Tokyo Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima KEK, Institute for High Energy Physics, Tsukuba Kyoto University, Kyoto Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, Nagasaki RIKEN, Institute for Physical and Chemical Research, Wako RIKEN-BNL Research Center, Upton, NY University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba Waseda University, Tokyo S. Korea Cyclotron Application Laboratory, KAERI, Seoul Kangnung National University, Kangnung Korea University, Seoul Myong Ji University, Yongin City System Electronics Laboratory, Seoul Nat. University, Seoul Yonsei University, Seoul Russia Institute of High Energy Physics, Protovino Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna Kurchatov Institute, Moscow PNPI, St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, St. Petersburg St. Petersburg State Technical University, St. Petersburg Sweden Lund University, Lund 12 Countries; 57 Institutions; 460 Participants

32. Scale of the Project Collect the Data!

33. We designed and built 400 custom data processor boards that receive over 50 Gigabits of data per second. Programmed Analog Devices SHARC processors. Biggest market user of SHARC processors are Gameboys. We are prototyping a new trigger processor this year using ALTERA’s latest programmable gate array chip. Cutting Edge Digital Electronics

34. First Collisions: June 15, 2000

35. Creating Black Holes? Can be dismissed with some basic General Relativity The Schwarzschild radius of a heavy ion collision: Radius of Au+Au collision compressed by x 100: much less than Planck length ! Even if it could form, it would evaporate by Hawking Radiation in 10 -83 seconds !

36. Science in the Media Journalists - when JFK Jr.’s flight disappeared, reporters called Brookhaven to ask if a black hole created at RHIC could have eaten the plane. Science Fiction - in this book, experiments including PHENIX and STAR study collisions which accidentally create baby universes.

37. Probe the Plasma Calibrated LASER Plasma we want to study Calibrated Light Meter Calibrated Heat Source

38. Jet Physics Jet = a quark that tries to escape. Eventually the “spring” breaks into a shower of particles. hadrons q q leading particle leading particle OPAL Event DisplaySchematic View of Jet Production

39. Quark is the Probe q q A quark trying to escape through the plasma loses energy by scattering with the surrounding quarks. We can look for a suppression of particles from jets.

40. Jet Quenching Indication of opaque medium and quark energy loss.