Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC: Strong coupling techniques for high density QCD

Project Information

HICLHC

Grant agreement ID: 236376

Project closed

Start date 1 June 2009

End date 31 May 2011

Funded under

• Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Total cost No data

EU contribution € 160 114,64

Coordinated by

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES
France

Objective

The study of nuclear matter under extreme conditions, where new states are predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), is the new frontier on the physics of the strong interactions. The upcoming experimental program in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, starting in 2009, is aimed at producing and studying a new state of matter, the Quark Gluon Plasma, and at the understanding of the fundamental properties of QCD, such as confinement and its phase diagram. The main goal of this project is to develop new theoretical tools for the analysis and understanding of the forthcoming experimental data. In this project we will use String Theory techniques to study non-perturbative aspects of Yang-Mills theories via the AdS-CFT correspondence. This novel procedure allows to study real-time dynamical aspects of a strongly-coupled Quark Gluon Plasma so far intractable via ordinary field-theoretical tools. In particular, we will study the thermalization dynamics of the very dense off-equilibrium partonic system created after a high energy nuclear collisions via the construction of a gravity-dual description of high-energy QCD scattering. Another goal of this project is to study the propagation of hard tomographic probes, such as quark and gluonic jets and heavy mesons, through a strongly-coupled medium, as well as the back-reaction induced in the medium in the form of collective excitations. The proposed studies shall be complemented and benchmarked against the available information about high density QCD systems derived in the weak coupling formalisms of the Color Glass Condensate and Finite Temperature QCD. An important ingredient of this project is the direct phenomenological application of the theoretical research work. To that end, a close contact and collaboration with different experimental groups is foreseen.

Fields of science

• natural sciences › physical sciences › theoretical physics › particle physics › particle accelerator
• engineering and technology › materials engineering › colors
• natural sciences › physical sciences › theoretical physics › particle physics › gluons
• natural sciences › physical sciences › theoretical physics › particle physics › quarks
• natural sciences › physical sciences › theoretical physics › string theory

Keywords

• Ads/CFT Correspondence
• Heavy Ion Collisions
• LHC
• Nuclear Physics
• Quantum field theory
• String Theory

Programme(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

• FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008 - Marie Curie Action: "Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES

• EU contribution: € 160 114,64
• Address: RUE LEBLANC 25 ; 75015 PARIS 15 ; France
• Region: Ile-de-France › Ile-de-France › Paris
• Activity type: Research Organisations
• Administrative Contact: Edmond Iancu (Dr.)
• Total cost: No data