CMS Quantum Chromodynamics Research Group

 

In 2005, our group started working on the physics of the strong interaction in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment using the proton and ion beams of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva. The strong interaction, which is related to the forces acting between the quarks and gluons that make up atomic nuclei, is described by the theory called quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and this is where the name of our group comes from. Our goal is the experimental investigation of those characteristics of the strong interaction that are not well explored both experimentally and theoretically, as well as the production and characterization of the hot and dense matter created in the microsecond after the Big Bang, the quark-gluon plasma. The data from the LHC already led to pioneering results in the first phase of its operation, such as the first direct detection of the energy loss of jets in the quark-gluon plasma, or the discovery of special particle correlations in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions. Our group deals with a more precise understanding of the dynamics of the strong interaction through the internal properties of jets, the distribution and properties of the gluons that hold protons and nuclei together, and research into the unknown properties of large-scale atmospheric particle showers created by cosmic radiation with the essential contribution of the strong interaction. Several doctoral students have graduated from our group, who have since received postdoctoral positions at such prestigious institutions as CERN, MIT (Cambridge), City University of New York, and the Max Planck Institute for Physics (Munich).