Research in modern physics of particles and nuclear physics in cooperation with IN2P3 units in France

aim of project
The project is part of a research program realized within the working group of European laboratories ”European Research Group”. The name of the research project which the WUT team participates in and which is coordinated by SUBATECH Laboratory in France is ”European Ultra Relativistic Energies Agreement”, and its aim is to study reactions of hadrons and heavy ions accelerated to highest energies achievable in laboratory conditions. At present, these reactions are registered in experiments conducted at CERN laboratory (Switzerland/France) using the SPS accelerator (Super Proton Synchrotron) and in Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) using the collider RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider). In near future these will be reactions registered at CERN in experiments with the world-largest collider LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The WUT team participates in 4 experiments: NA49 and NA61 at CERN, where measurements are made with SPS, in STAR in Brookhaven using RHIC and in ALICE, prepared at CERN with the use of LHC. Another task is participation in the development of theoretical models describing relativistic reactions of heavy ions, especially hydrodynamic models and thermal models. The aim of all the research is to study the mechanisms of nuclear reactions at highest energies where a phase change is predicted from the hadron state of the matter to the quark state of the matter, called “quark-gluon plasma”. This exotic state of the matter creates possibilities of studying quark properties in the free state and learning about the laws of nature in the area so far inaccessible to the human.

expected results
A result of the conducted research will be determination of dimensions of areas in which particles are emitted in analyzed reactions, and dependencies of these areas on the energy of colliding objects, their masses and the collision parameter. There will also be studies on dependencies of dimensions of emission areas on momenta of emitted particles and their directions towards the axis and plane of the reaction. The results of measurements will be compared with theoretical predictions, which will enable to study influence mechanisms at the quark level. The results will be published and presented at conferences and they will also be the basis of Ph.D. and habilitation dissertations written at the WUT Faculty of Physics.