Theory team
The Theory team is mainly interested in the theory of the strong interaction which is responsible for the stability of atomic nuclei and therefore of the matter that constitutes us.
- 5PhD students
- 4post-doctoral fellows
- 14researchers
Research areas
Research areas range from nuclear physics to the study of quarks and gluons produced in high-energy particle accelerators. The group's mission is to develop and refine physical models to describe the structure of matter, compare models with experimental results and propose new measurements. This requires complex mathematical calculations, sometimes using numerical simulations.
- 1975
- quarks-gluons plasma prediction
- 2000
- discovery of a deconfined state
- 2005
- discovery of the perfect fluid
- 2012
- the hottest plasma produced at the LHC
Reactions
High-energy heavy ion reactions can be simulated on computer, from the first moments of the collision to the flight of the particles in the detector.
The EPOS model, based on the theory of the strong interaction and which allows many physical processes to be included, is used by a large number of theorists and experimentalists to simulate their analyis.
Nuclear reactions
Low-energy nuclear reactions are studied using a generalized liquid-drop model or via classical molecular dynamics, enabling the description of various phenomena such as fusion, fission, vaporization or the formation and decay of superheavy nuclei.
The Quark-Gluon Plasma at LHC
- 10-22s: lifetime
- 5x1012K: temperature
- 100 times less viscous than water
The plasma of quarks and gluons is a very high-temperature state of matter existing at the beginning of the Universe and produced in heavy-ion collisions. We describe the evolution of plasma using the laws of hydrodynamics to determine its physical properties, such as viscosity and the existence of a critical point. The effects of a dense medium on the dynamics of heavy quarks and on jet and hadron radiation phenomena are also studied from a theoretical and phenomenological point of view. Implications for cosmology are also discussed.