Prof. Dr. Johann Rafelski
University of Arizona, Department of Physics

GRADUATE research Ph.D. opportunities
and
UNDERGRADUATE research experience and Honors Thesis

My research interests
encompass the general topics of Theoretical Physics in the areas of Particle, Nuclear, Relativity, with a common objective, the understanding of the vacuum structure. The following is a short characterization of related research areas. For more information contact me and/or consider my research pages.
  1. Ultra strong (laser generated) electric fields,
    1. study of strong field particle production,
    2. "cold" particle plasma,
    3. vacuum quark condensates in strong EM fields.
  2. QGP and heavy ion collisions
    1. heavy (charm, bottom, top) quarks in quark gluon plasma at LHC;
    2. strange particle production;
    3. quark gluon plasma hadronization mechanisms
    4. color field strings and particle production;
    5. early Universe quark-gluon plasma hadronization.
  3. Decay and/or annihilation of dark matter and Universe expansion.
  4. Vacuum structure, symmetry breaking and gravity.
Detailed research objectives are jointly defined and developed with the research student - by its nature the word re-search means the process of search and search again. Consequently, the next search cannot be defined before the prior search is accomplished.
Type of available position:
All types of positions at both undergraduate and graduate level are available: volunteer, for-credit and paid, depending on level of experience and commitment to the research program, and UA rules and regulations. Student funding is provided under a US Department of Energy grant. It is unusual for a student to be funded with a research assistantship prior to establishment of a vibrant Ph.D. research project. Honors Thesis research cannot be paid for under UA rules. For some students it maybe of interest to participate in available international collaboration efforts.

Remarks for undergraduates:
Opportunity for active participation in the research activities earn credit through independent study and thesis (honors program). Tasks assigned depend on skill, interest, preparation level. Independent study offered in preparation for research.
EXPERIENCE/PREP EXPECTED:
1. Physics and/or Astro and/or Math major with GPA>3.8 in core classes.
2. Competence in scientific programming. (FORTRAN and/or C, Mathematica or similar)
3. Completed or in progress Quantum, Particle, Nuclear, Statistical, Relativity, Math Method Classes.

Spring 2008 PHYS 399H students developing a research project:
Mr. Kiel Howe and Mr. Brent Morgan.

Remarks for graduate students:
Graduate students become progressively involved in all aspects of the selected research. RA positions are available for qualified students. Consult my research pages and/or contact me to get started. For your information and illustration, check with recent/current students.

RECENT/PRESENT GRAD STUDENTS
Giorgio Torrieri who graduated in 2004 continues to collaborate with the group. An important innovative element of his thesis: Statistical hadronization phenomenology in heavy ion collisions at SPS and RHIC energies was the exploration of strange hadron resonance formation and rescattering in hadronization of quark-gluon plasma. As a parallel project, Giorgio has developed and continues to maintain the analysis tool, SHARE (Statistical HAdronization with REsonance) which allows a precise model description of experimental particle yield and fluctuation data. This suite of programs also allows the evaluation of the bulk source properties including energy, entropy, strangeness content of all particles produced.

Ms. Inga Kouznetsova, in a recently completed project, considered pattern of charm hadronization in a strangeness rich QGP environment. The yield of all charm hadrons and in particular of Charmonium is significantly affected, there is new mechanism of charmonium suppression, due to competition of charmonium formation with the formation of strange-heavy mesons Ds which in effect depletes the pool of available charmed quark pairs. Inga has in past year developed the kinetic theory of hadron formation in cold plasma, and we are preparing a related publication. One of important outgrowths of this project is that we now can model the evolution of hadron resonance states after hadronization of Quark-Gluon Plasma. I expect Inga to graduate within 10-15 months. She is a fully supported RA.

Mr. Steve Steinke in his most recent research advanced the understanding of color string breaking process. The QCD color string is embedded in the structured QCD vacuum and interacts with it. An important physical mechanism is the quantum character of transverse dynamics of the QCD string. We found that accounting for this effect alters the spectra of particles produced. Thus the string quantum dynamics can help us understand the two key riddles a) the initial state formation and entropy production, b) the final state and dynamical hadronization. Prior to this project Steve participated in the SHARE project, and specifically, he wrote the script for the web based SHARE (see entry under G. Torrieri above). However, with the release of SHARE 2 last Spring, and in absence of resources to update the web release, we had to suspend this part of the SHARE project. Steve was in Spring 2007--Spring 2008 for one year on leave from the graduate program, and is currently a teaching assistant.

Mr. Michal Petran of Prague Technical University has been a visiting graduate student in Fall 2007 semester supported by TU Prague. He is in Spring 2008 completing his Diploma Thesis at Prague, and applying as a regular grad student at UA in order to continue work on hadronization of QGP, and in particular the development of the SHARE project to allow consideration of many systems in a simultaneous fitting of hadronization parameters (e.g. to fit particle yields at many different centralities with differing volumes but same temperatures. This should produce a much greater confidence level and better understanding of mechanisms of hadronization.

Mr. Lance Labun coming from Dartmouth, joined the AZ Physics graduate program in Fall 2007. After discussing a variety of possible research projects, we are focusing today on particle production in a macroscopic ultra-strong fields as a first research project. Lance is presently half RA and half TA.
Updated February 13, 2008
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