The primary physics direction of the group is to establish and expand the capabilities of STAR at RHIC to measure charm production as a tool for studying the QGP and to utilize the large energy available at the LHC in ALICE at CERN for jet production to probe the QGP formed there. Present work in both experiments focuses on measurements of flavor production, high transverse momentum particles, jets and correlations to probe the QGP.

The STAR experiment searches for signatures of quark-gluon plasma formation and investigates the behavior of strongly interacting matter at high energy density by focusing on measurements of hadron production over a large solid angle. STAR is one of the two large-scale experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL which began operation in 2000. It was designed to focus primarily on hadronic observables and features a large acceptance for high precision tracking and momentum analysis at center of mass (c.m.) rapidity.

The STAR experiment utilizes colliding beams of various nuclei from protons to gold at center of mass energies of 200 GeV per nucleon pair or a total energy of approximately 40 TeV per nucleus-nucleus collision. The experiment utilizes a large volume Time Projection Chambers (TPC), a Silicon Vertex Tracker, for tracking and particle identification in a high track density environment. STAR will measure many observables simultaneously to study signatures of a possible QGP phase transition and the space-time evolution of the collision process. The goal is to obtain a fundamental understanding of the microscopic structure of hadronic interactions, at the level of quarks and gluons, at high energy densities. STAR measures the bulk properties of the matter formed in the most violent (near-) head-on collisions at RHIC, for example entropy, baryochemical potential, strangeness chemical potential, temperature, fluctuations, and particle and energy flow. It also measures high transverse momentum (pt) processes representing hard scattered partons in the form of high pt single particles, azimuthal correlations of high pt particles, and jets

The ALICE experiment has characteristics similar to that of STAR with its extensive high precision tracking, particle identification and electromagnetic calorimetry. These are used to investigate particle and jet production around mid-rapidity (near 90 degrees in the center-of-mass) where the observables of the QGP are expected to manifest themselves strongly in near head-on collisions of nuclei. This is particularly true at the LHC where the energies and energy densities (and temperatures) are expected to be several times that at RHIC and where as yet unobserved, even unexpected, properties of the QGP may manifest themselves. The group is focusing on assembly, testing, calibration and installation of the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal) in ALICE. Most of this work will be undertaken at Yale during 2008 – 2010, with shipment to and installation and operation in ALICE at CERN starting in 2009 when heavy ions become available in the LHC. Earlier experiments in ALICE with protons will commence in 2008. This research is at the frontier of relativistic heavy ion physics.