Inspecting High Density Matter with the CMS Experiment

• Grant number: 24/23753-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Elementary Particle Physics and Fields
• Principal Investigator: Sandra dos Santos Padula
• Grantee: Florian Damas
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Computação Científica (NCC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 18/25225-9 - São Paulo Research and Analysis Center, AP.ESP

Abstract

The quark-gluon plasma (QGP), conjectured to have existed in the very beginning of the universe evolution, reflects the asymptotic freedom property of Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory governing the strong force. The QGP was recreated in the laboratory by experiments at RHIC and at the LHC via very high energy heavy ions (HI) collisions, producing a state of matter at high densities and temperatures. The QGP was found to behave as a strongly coupled almost perfect fluid, revealing a collective behavior among the produced particles. Intriguingly, evidence of systems produced with similar collective characteristics were gathered later, in much smaller proton-proton (pp) and proton-ion (pA) collisions at the LHC and at RHIC, in events where a very large number of particles were produced. The reasons for those similarities are under vigorous debate and intense experimental and theoretical scrutiny. The common ground in those findings are found in experimental data involving correlations of particles produced in pp, pA and ion-ion (AA) collisions at very high energies, which is the main object of investigation of this Post-Doctoral research project.