Irfu
Quark-gluon plasma
Pad chamber installed at CERN (Copyright Antonio Saba, www.antonosaba.com)
Central collisions between heavy nuclei accelerated to ultrarelativistic energies are an ideal tool for investigating the behaviour of nuclear matter under extreme temperature and density conditions. The phase transition between ordinary nuclear matter and a new state referred to as quark-gluon plasma is predicted by the fundamental theory of strong interaction. Its existence is actively sought using high-energy accelerators in Europe and the USA. DAPNIA is currently participating in two related experiments: PHENIX (BNL, USA) and ALICE (CERN, Geneva).
last update : 10-18 00:00:00-2005 (610)
 |
23-12-2009
Monday, 23 November 2009, marked the first particle beam collision inside the large detectors of the LHC. ALICE saw its first collisions at an energy of 900 GeV, enabling it to check for correct operation of the 18 large detectors which comprise it. Since 27 November, with just a few days worth ... More » |
 |
02-12-2010
The first lead-lead collision results have been published
After almost a year collecting data from proton-proton collisions, the LHC at CERN began the injection of lead ions at the beginning of November, with the first collisions obtained on November 8. The energy in the nucleon-nucleon center of mass is 2.76 TeV, around ten times greater than that ... More » |
 |
05-05-2009
At the end of March 2009, the ALICE Muon Spectrometer took cosmic rays over a period of two weeks. The ALICE group at Saclay2 was closely involved in the design, development, construction and installation of a part of the chambers of this Spectrometer3. The purpose of the cosmic ray test was to ... More » |
 |
25-02-2010
The Phenix and Star collaborations, which include physicists from CEA-IRFU and CNRS-IN2P3, have announced major discoveries on the nature of the quark-gluon plasma. These conclusive results, which advance our understanding of nuclear material subjected to extreme conditions, shed new light on the ... More » |
Experiments
