This week, I was lucky enough to attend a conference in Durham’s Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology. This was primarily for theorists to get together and discuss the status of the different theoretical models describing the behaviour of quarks, gluons and the strong force: Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The difficult part is understanding QCD is finding a way to describe the phenomena involved (things I will talk about in more detail as time goes on), such as fragmentation of quark-antiquark pairs as they are pulled apart, or the transition from quark-gluon plasma to normal matter.
As an experimentalist, I was somewhat nervous about sitting in on this and trying to make sense of it! However, it was very interesting, and has left me rather excited about what we can find out at ALICE. The current theoretical models are vital for us experimentalists to simulate events and get an idea of what our data might look like. However, new data at new energies from the LHC will give the theorists a new perspective, hinting at what direction they should go in, by backing up or completely defying model predictions! It’s a two-way relationship that keeps improving from both sides. This is how science works – we try to explain what we observe, then we make more measurements to test our explanations. It’s rather fun!
