Quantum Transport in Hot QCD Matter

Nuclear matter is at the heart of all visible matter in our universe. One of the most profound scientific questions today concerns the understanding of how fundamental particles such as quarks and gluons make up protons, neutrons and ultimately various forms of nuclear matter. This project aims to address this outstanding challenge by investigating quantum transport effects in a form of matter called quark-gluon plasma that once filled the early universe and can now be created and studied at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The PI and his collaborators will perform state-of-the-art quantum transport simulations and will utilize advanced analysis tools like Bayesian inference and machine learning to extract key physics properties from comprehensive experimental data. Additionally, this project supports the mentoring and training of graduate and undergraduate students in scientific research. The PI will engage in outreach activities to disseminate fresh knowledge from current research to a broad public audience. This project has two key physics objectives on a unified theme of quantum transport in quark-gluon plasma. The first objective is to investigate chirality transport through the chiral magnetic effect (CME). This is done by performing anomalous viscous hydrodynamics simulations and advanced Bayesian analysis to quantitatively extract key physics ingredients of CME transport from comprehensive experimental data from heavy ion collisions over a broad range of collisional beam energies. The second objective is to explore angular momentum transport and its associated spin polarization/alignment effects. The PI seeks to establish the angular momentum initial conditions, develop the spin hydrodynamics theory framework, and phenomenological simulations to calculate observables, as well as utilizing machine learning (ML) tools to search for signatures of angular momentum transport. These objectives provide critical theoretical calculations for interpreting an abundance of experimental measurements from heavy ion collisions. The project outcomes contribute to the addressing the mission goals articulated in the 2023 Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.