Anomalous Broadening of Jet-Peak Shapes in Pb–Pb collisions and Characterization of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors for the ALICE Inner Tracking System Upgrade
Monika Kofarago, promovenda aan het Nikhef, verdedigt haar proefschrift 19 februari 2018 aan de Universiteit van Utrecht.
In heavy-ion collisions, the state of the Universe a few microseconds after the Big Bang can be studied. In these collisions, the quark-gluon plasma is produced, which filled the Universe at that time. In high-energy collisions, quark-anti quark pairs are also produced, which hadronize into sprays of collinear particles called jets. The interaction of these jets with the quark-gluon plasma can provide information on the properties of the plasma. In the thesis, this interaction is studied by measuring two-particle angular correlations. Jets manifest themselves as a peak in angular correlations and the interactions are studied by comparing the jet peak from heavy-ion collisions to proton-proton collisions and to models. The comparisons suggest that the flowing quark-gluon plasma modifies the shape of the jet peak at low transverse momentum in collisions when the two colliding nuclei fully overlap. The measurement is done by the ALICE detector, which will be upgraded in 2019-2020. Its innermost detector, the Inner Tracking System, will be completely replaced by a new silicon detector. This new detector will allow a much faster and more precise data taking. The prototypes of this new detector and their characterization are also described in details in the thesis, and it is shown that they fulfill the requirements of the upgrade in terms of detection efficiency, spatial resolution and noise occupancy.
De promotie vindt plaats op maandag 19 februari, om 14.30 in het Academiegebouw, Senaatszaal, Domplein 29, 3512 JE Utrecht.
Anomalous Broadening of Jet-Peak Shapes in Pb–Pb collisions and Characterization of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors for the ALICE Inner Tracking System Upgrade (pdf)
Promotor: Prof.dr. R.J.M. Snellings
Copromotoren: dr J.F. Grosse-Oetringhaus
Contact: Monika Kofarago