Alexandra Kucich
Pronouns: they/them
Research Mentor(s): Christine Aidala, Professor
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Physics, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Presentation Date: Thursday, April 22, 2021
Session: Session 3 (1pm-1:50pm)
Breakout Room: Room 15
Presenter: 4
Abstract
The purpose of this research project is to determine the efficacy of designs for the new sPHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in measuring the charge of a quark jet with precision. The paper “Jet Charge: A Flavor Prism for Spin Asymmetries at the Electron-Ion Collider” by Kang, Liu, et al. provides the basis for this research by suggesting that determining jet charge could yield valuable clues as to the separation of various quark flavors in jet production and associated spin asymmetries. It is therefore imperative for the sake of later investigations into nucleon spin and flavor structure using sPHENIX to ensure that the detector is capable of accurately measuring jet charge. The study will utilize Monte Carlo simulations to produce known values for the charges of jets and the flavor of a parton initiating them. Code that mimics current sPHENIX detector design will then reconstruct these jet charge values in the jet-producing, simulated proton-proton collisions. Reconstructed jet charge values will then be compared against the known, generated values in order to assess the accuracy of the reconstruction. Assessing sPHENIX’s jet charge measurements will allow for improvements to its jet charge reconstruction algorithm and eventually more accurate probes of nucleon flavor and spin structure as described in Kang et al.
Authors: Al Kucich, Sook Hyun Lee, Christine Aidala
Research Method: Computer Programming
