Chiho NonakaCo-Principal Investigator, Education Initiatives Lead, Steering Committee Member

Professor Chiho Nonaka, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Physics Program

nchiho_at_hiroshima-u.ac.jp

I am conducting research on the phase diagram of quantum chromodynamics (QCD), using the first principle calculation (lattice QCD) and phenomenological analysis. Usually, quarks and gluons are confined in hadrons such as mesons and baryons.  On the other hand, under extreme conditions like high temperature and/or high density, the new state called quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is created, where quarks and gluons are deconfined and behave as a gas. The key issues of understanding of QCD phase diagram are chiral phase transition and confinement-deconfinement phase transition. For achievement of QGP production on the earth, high-energy heavy-ion collisions are performed at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).  For description of space-time evolution of medium produced after the collisions, a hydrodynamic model is one of the most successful phenomenological models. We succeeded in obtaining QGP bulk properties, temperature dependence of transport coefficients from comparison between hydrodynamic calculation and experimental results. In addition, we have constructed a relativistic resistive magneto-hydrodynamic model and apply it to analysis of observables at RHIC, for the first time. As a result, we find that the charge-dependent anisotropic flow is a good probe to extract the electrical conductivity of the QGP medium from high-energy heavy-ion experiments. At the same time, we explore the QCD phase diagram in low-temperature and high-density region, using lattice QCD simulations. Recently we found existence of the inhomogeneous phase in Monte Carlo simulation of Gross Neveu Model.