Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EXPLORINGMATTER (Exploring Matter with Precision Charm and Beauty Production Measurements in Heavy Nuclei Collisions at LHCb)
Teaser
EXPLORINGMATTER is a project which uses the experiment LHCb at CERN to study heavy nuclei collisions in a configuration and energy never explored before. These studies can shed light to the Quark Gluon Plasma, a new state of matter still largely unknown.The objectives of the...
Summary
EXPLORINGMATTER is a project which uses the experiment LHCb at CERN to study heavy nuclei collisions in a configuration and energy never explored before. These studies can shed light to the Quark Gluon Plasma, a new state of matter still largely unknown.The objectives of the project are listed below.
• Objective 1 is to collect data in the three configurations necessary to probe QGP formation and its characteristics: pp, pA and AB collisions, where A and B are the heavy nuclei types.
• Objective 2 and 3 are to analyse the data to obtain precise measurements of charmonium, bottomonium and open charm and beauty production in heavy-ions collisions and of cold nuclear matter effects.
• Objective 4 is to use the results and techniques from EXPLORINGMATTER to think and design future experiments.
Work performed
The main activities in the first period have been
centered around the collection of the data in the pPb, PbPb and
SMOG configurations, the last two for the first time ever at LHCb.
The data have been collected, stored, reconstructed and
analysed by my team, with the help of the experts in the
collaboration.
The analysis with the PbPb data, collected in 2015,
are very challenging due to the high multiplicities involved and
gave us an important sample of data to
develop new techniques to analyse the new data sample we will
collect at the end of 2018. This study is currently on-going.
The analysis of the SMOG proton - Argon sample has been
summarised in two conference notes and presented at Quark-Matter
2017, the most important conference in the field.
My team has also studied the feasibility of the pPb
run, which has successfully happened in November 2016.
Two publications on the pPb samples in 2013 and 2016 have been
released, and more are currently in preparation.
Members of my team are also studying the feasibility of the LHCb upgraded detector
to participate to the Heavy Ion runs after 2020.
Final results
The PbPb collisions have been collected at LHCb for the first time,
and for the first time this region in rapidity has been explored
at this energy with this precision. The study of the D0 production
in pPb has been studied for the first time down to
zero momentum, a crucial milestone for the understanding of
cold nuclear matter effects. The results in SMOG collisions
are the first and thus completely unique.
This project has no impact on on society.
Website & more info
More info: https://sites.unica.it/exploringmatter/.