Systematic analysis of observables in nucleus-nucleus collisions.

• Grant number: 25/22475-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: December 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Nuclear Physics
• Principal Investigator: Airton Deppman
• Grantee: Lucas Quinsan Rocha
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 24/01533-7 - Dynamics of many-body systems V, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project is based on the application of thermofractal theory and Tsallis non-extensive statistics to the modeling of multiple observables in nucleus-nucleus collisions in high-energy physics.Insights will be obtained using phenomenological models developed by the research group,which are grounded in the fundamental principle that particle production in systems formed bynucleus-nucleus or even proton-proton collisions can be described by a non-extensive statisticalframework. In this context, observables such as cross sections are well represented by suchmodels. The first objective of this project is to describe the effects and phenomena involved inhigh-energy collisions, the dynamics of such systems, and the presence of exotic states such asthe quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The second objective is to employ a technique known as symbolicregression using neural networks and language models, which represent the current state of theart in deep learning, to capture mathematical relationships between observables and test thevalidity of the proposed models by incorporating physical context-going beyond traditionalstatistical tests. The explanation of phenomena such as collective anisotropic flow and the degreeof influence of heavy quarks on the plasma dynamics is also among the goals to be achievedthrough the application of the multiple machine learning techniques proposed in this work.Furthermore, the methodology introduced here may allow for the expansion of analyses to otherobservables, such as multiplicity, sphericity, and flattenicity, as well as to other scientific problems of interest to the research group or the broader scientific community.