Au+Au collisions in STAR

Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics

Relativistic heavy ion physics studies the properties of nuclear matter under extremely hot and dense conditions. When two nuclei are accelerated to relativistic energies and collided with each other, it produces temperatures so hot that the protons and neutrons "melt" into their constituent quarks and gluons and form a new phase of matter, called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). My research attempts to study the properties of this QGP using data from the STAR detector, one of the experiments at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider), located at Brookhaven National Lab.