Development of a 3+1 hydrodynamical code for studies of the Quark Gluon Plasma

Abstract

The study of the Quark Gluon Plasma is important in itself because its properties reflect fundamental characteristics of the strong interactions which are yet poorly understostudood. In addition, this study can benefit from and benefit other areas such as Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics and gauge-gravity duality. It is also relevant to understand phenomena in cosmology and astrophysics (early universe, compact stars, cosmic rays).The observation of the Quark Gluon Plasma as the most perfect fluid created in the laboratory was anounced at RHIC (acelerator near New York-USA) in 2005 and confirmed at the LHC (collidor at CERN-Switzerland) which started to run in 2010. Since then a huge quantity of data have been published. To analyze them correctly we need an adequate tool, a code that solve the equations of relativistic viscous hydrodynamics in 3+1 dimensons. Developping this tool is the main objective of this project.The team involves four researchers and one student: Dr.F.Grassi, her colleague Dr.M.Luzum and the graduate student R.Miller (Instituto de Física-Universidade de São Paulo), Dr.F.Gardim (Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia-Universidade Federal de Alfenas), Dr. J.Noronha-Holster (Department of Physics, University of Houston-USA). (AU)