Physics of ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions

Lecturer:

Vojtěch Petráček (gar.)

Tutor:

Vojtěch Petráček (gar.)

Supervisor:

Department of Physics

Synopsis:

Lecture is an introductory course of relativistic and ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics. It covers particle production mechanisms in proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions, hydrodynamics of excited nuclear matter, properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and QGP modeling in lattice gauge calculations. Signals carrying information about the QGP phase will be discussed in detail together with their use in current and future heavy ion experiment with special emphasis on the ALICE experiment at LHC.

Requirements:

Knowledge of basic course of physics and subatomic physics

Syllabus of lectures:

1.Overview

2.Relativistic kinematics

3.Nucleon-nucleon collisions

4.Particle production

5.Hard processes in nucleon-nucleon collisions

6.Quarks, gluons and quark-gluon plasma

7.Nucleus-nucleus collisions

8.Signatures of the quark-gluon plasma

9.Dilepton production

10.Production of havy quarks, suppression of quarkonia production

11.Production of direct (thermal) photons, fireball femtoscopy

12.Parton energy loss, jet quenching

13.Overview of heavy ion experiments

Syllabus of tutorials:

Practical lessons are concentrated on more detailed studies and presentation of related papers.

Study Objective:

Knowledge:

Fundamentals of hot and dense nuclear matter, models of quark-gluon plasma

Abilities:

Orientation in problems of heavy ion collisions

Study materials:

Key references:

[1] Cheng-Yin Wong: Introduction to High - Energy Heavy - Ion collisions, World Scientific, Singapore, 1994

[2] E. Byckling, K. Kajantie: Particle Kinematics, John Wiley and Sons, London 1973

Recommended references:

[3] Edward Shuryak: The QCD vacuum, hadrons and superdense matter, World Scientific 1988

Note:

Time-table for winter semester 2011/2012:

Time-table is not available yet

Time-table for summer semester 2011/2012:

Time-table is not available yet

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• FNSPE Prospectus MGR level (!)