PhD: Jet studies of the quark-gluon plasma with ALICE at the LHC

Birmingham is one of the founding members of the ALICE collaboration at CERN. The ALICE experiment has been optimised to study collisions of heavy nuclei at the LHC. By re-creating the conditions of the early universe, nuclear matter is momentarily transformed into a strongly-coupled plasma of quarks and gluons. One of the striking features of this novel state of matter is its opacity to jets. Experimental techniques have recently been developed to reconstruct jets in the high multiplicity environment of heavy-ion collisions. This project is aimed at performing a detailed study of the structure of jets to explore the properties of the quark-gluon plasma and shed light upon the suppression mechanism in hot QCD matter. This project will also involve contributing to the upgrade of the central trigger system of the ALICE detector for Run 3, for which Birmingham is the lead institute. Travel to CERN, possibly involving an extended stay, will be necessary to make a full contribution to the project.

This project will be undertaken within the Nuclear Physics group at the University of Birmingham. For details of the group and to find out more about studying for a PhD here, please refer to http://www.np.ph.bham.ac.uk. More generic aspects of PhD study at the University of Birmingham, including the Doctoral Research Prospectus, can be found at http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/drp.

Funding Notes

This research project is one of a number of projects at this institution. It is in competition for funding with one or more of these projects. Usually the project which receives the best applicant will be awarded the funding. The funding is only available to UK citizens or those who have been resident in the UK for a period of 3 years or more.

Non-UK Students: If you have the correct qualifications and access to your own funding, either from your home country or your own finances, your application to work on this project will be considered.