Physics of Nuclear Collisions at High Energy

Abstract

A wide range of problems has been investigated in the research program during the period of this grant. Although the major effort has been in the subject of heavy-ion collisions, we have also studied problems in biological and other physical systems. The method of analysis used in reducing complex data in multiparticle production to simple descriptions can also be applied to the study of complex systems of very different nature. Phase transition is an important phenomenon in many areas of physics, and for heavy-ion collisions we study the fluctuations of multiplicities at the critical point. Human brain activities as revealed in EEG also involve fluctuations in time series, and we have found that our experience enables us to find the appropriate quantification of the fluctuations in ways that can differentiate stroke and normal subjects. The main topic that characterizes the research at Oregon in heavy-ion collisions is the recombination model for the treatment of the hadronization process. We have avoided the hydrodynamical model partly because there is already a large community engaged in it, but more significantly we have found the assumption of rapid thermalization unconvincing. Recent results in studying LHC physics lead us to provide more evidence that showermore » partons are very important even at low p_T, but are ignored by hydro. It is not easy to work in an environment where the conventional wisdom regards our approach as being incorrect because it does not adhere to the standard paradigm. But that is just what a vibrant research community needs: unconventional approach may find evidences that can challenge the orthodoxy. An example is the usual belief that elliptic flow in fluid dynamics gives rise to azimuthal anisotropy. We claim that it is only sufficient but not necessary. With more data from LHC and more independent thinkers working on the subject what is sufficient as a theory may turn out to be incorrect in reality. Another area of investigation that has long been associated with this PI is the study of quark-hadron phase transition in heavy-ion collisions. Finally, at LHC enough particles are produced to make feasible the investigation of intermittency and erraticity indices that we have proposed as signatures of that phase transition.« less