Hard probes of heavy-ion collisions

Heavy-ion collisions at collider energies are performed in order to produce and study QCD matter at high temperature, the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Such an extreme state of matter is believed to have existed during the first microseconds after the Big Bang.

The QGP and properties of strong force can be probed on a variety of length scales by jets, collimated spraysof particles originating from scattered quarks and gluons.

The intent of this proposal is to study how high-energy quarks and gluons interact with the QGP and to better understand the mechanism of energy loss as they traverse the QGP.

The investigators will focus on studies of jet substructure using contemporary substructure techniques as well as exploiting the role of flavour, jets size, and path-length dependence using new probes involving boosted objects.

The project includes both experimental measurements and phenomenological investigations using existing models and their improvement.