PhDdefense.ppt

Identified Particle Production in p+p and d+Au Collisions at RHIC Energies Felix Matathias Doctoral Defense Adviser: Tom Hemmick State University of New York at Stony Brook Comparative Nuclear Physics Yesterday it occurred to me that the core concept of my thesis is not so different than what my wife does for a living. My wife is a Ph.D. student in Comparative Literature at Stony Brook. I gave her a call last night and asked her for a short definition of her field. She repeatedly asked my why I needed it and seemed confused (and concerned). The goal of Comparative Literature is: “…to compare literature in different languages and literature with relation to some other field…” In that vein, I define the goal of Comparative Nuclear Physics to be: “…compare properties of particle production in different nuclear environments and as a function of particle flavor…” Obviously this is a narrow definition that I made up to define the goal of my thesis. It could easily though be extended to a more general definition. The main point though is that my wife may become interested in what I do. Comparative Nuclear Physics II In this work we will be comparing particle production at Center of Mass Energy: √s=200GeV Different nuclear environments: p+p collisions d+Au collisions Au+Au collisions Particle species: pions, Kaons, (anti)protons The physical observables will be Differential yield per inelastic collision in the d+Au and Au+Au case Invariant differential cross sections in the p+p case The machine Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Brookhaven National Lab 2 counter-circulating rings 3.834 km circumference Superconducting magnets(3.5T) 192 dipoles per ring 246 quadrupoles per ring Time between collisions: 0.213 microseconds Crossing angle: 0 Bunch length: 20 cm Bunches per ring: 56 Luminosity lifetime: 3-10 hours Particles per bunch (un