Central Production in proton—proton collisions is a very unique process of particle production. It includes a measurement of forward protons and of the central system. This basic QCD process is important not only on its own but also allows tuning of Monte Carlo generators, which are used to simulate high energy proton—proton collisions. STAR, with its central detector and measurement of the forward protons in the Roman Pots, has a unique data set to investigate this physics topic. This topic is complementary to the ongoing analysis on Central Exclusive Production.
A student will get acquainted with the principles of diffractive physics, with the STAR experiment and with recent results in the topic. By analyzing real data and contributing to an ongoing measurement, the student will gain experience and learn modern tools utilized in High Energy Nuclear Physics. The student will be part of the strong local group, who will support this effort. Ing. Tomáš Truhlář will be concultant of the thesis. There is a possibility to spent a month in Brookhaven National Laboratory during or after thesis project in order to collaborate with STAR collegaues on this topic.
[1] V. Barone and E. Predazzi, High-energy particle diffraction. Springer, 2002.
[2] S. Donnachie, Pomeron physics and QCD. Press, 2002.
[3] J. Adam et al. (STAR Collaboration), “Measurement of the central exclusive
production of charged particle pairs in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 200 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC,” Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2020, no. 7, p. 46, 2020.
[4] T. Truhlar (for the STAR Collaboration), “Study of the central exclusive production
of pi+pi-, K+K- and ppbar pairs in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 510 GeV with the STAR detector at RHIC,”
The 40th International Conference on High Energy Physics, vol. 2020. arXiv:2012.06295 [hep-ex]