When atomic nuclei are smashed into each other at very high energies, such as is done at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN, a strongly coupled, deconfined state of QCD matter is produced. Surprisingly, this strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is well described by a very runny (barely viscous) fluid. Thus hybrid hydrodynamical/hadron gas models have been used to successfully infer properties of this fluid. The heavy-ion simulation software that I primarily work on called Trajectum is an example of such a hybrid model, designed with Bayesian analysis in mind.
Since the colliding ions are charged and move very close to the speed of light, they produce the strongest magnetic fields in the known universe. I study the observable effects these fields may have on the QGP formed in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC. In particular, we aim to model the charge-dependent directed flow of pions and protons at RHIC and LHC collision energies by including electromagnetic and baryon-stopping effects in Trajectum.
Besides magnetic effects, I'm also very interested in the role that spin degrees of freedom play in heavy-ion collisions. It is well known that hydrodynamics translates initial state geometry into final state momentum anisotropy. Similarly the angular momentum in the initial state of the heavy-ion collision could explain the observed final state spin-polaristion of 螞-hyperons.
My research interests as a bullet list:
- magnetohydrodynamics
- the role of spin degrees of freedom in heavy-ion collisions (hyperon spin polarisation)
- 3+1D hydrodynamics and 3+1 initial conditions