Speaker
Abstract content <br> (Max 300 words)<br><a href="http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=0&confId=34" target="_blank">Formatting &<br>Special chars</a>
The study of matter under extreme conditions known as the quark gluon plasma (QGP) is key to the understanding of the early universe. The QGP is a high-density Quantum Chromodynamic (QCD) medium of “free” quarks and gluons (deconfinement), expected to form at high temperature and density where quark and gluon degrees of freedom dominate.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has 4 major experiments, one of which is ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) - a general purpose heavy-ion detector with the main physics goal to study the formation and properties of the QGP in heavy-ion collisions. ALICE is also studying proton-proton collisions both as a comparison with lead-lead collisions and in physics areas where ALICE is competitive with other LHC experiments.
Heavy quarks which consist of charm and beauty quarks are formed in the initial stages of the collision through gluon fusion which is a dominant process at the LHC. The study of heavy quark production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC provides an important test of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations, particularly in the forward rapidity of ALICE (2.5 < y < 4) where their production is expected to be sensitive to Bjorken-x values down to ~ 6· 10−6 - 2 · 10−5. In addition, the investigation of heavy quark production in proton-proton collisions also constitutes an essential baseline for the corresponding measurements in heavy ion collisions.
In this study the production of heavy quarks is measured via the contribution of their muonic decay to the inclusive pT-differential muon yield reconstructed with the muon spectrometer at forward rapidity (-4 < η < -2.5).
Please indicate whether<br>this abstract may be<br>published online<br>(Yes / No)
yes
Apply to be<br> considered for a student <br> award (Yes / No)?
yes
Level for award<br> (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD, N/A)?
MSc
Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)?
no
Main supervisor (name and email)<br>and his / her institution
Z Buthelezi,zinhle@tlabs.ac.za, iThemba LABS
