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WS25/26 – Abstract
Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler
(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
13.11.2025
Using the LHC system size scan as a probe of the smallest fluid
The Quark Gluon Plasma that is produced briefly in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, acts as a nearly perfect fluid and can be well described by relativistic viscous hydrodynamics. The primary observables of the Quark Gluon Plasma are the collective nature of the fluid measured through collective flow, the enhancement of in the number of strange particles, and the energy loss of jets as they are bumped around in the strongly-interacting fluid,
About a decade ago, collective flow signatures of the Quark Gluon Plasma appeared in extremely small systems like proton-lead or even proton-proton collisions - puzzling physicists. Later on, strangeness enhancement was also seen in these tiny systems. However, energy loss measurements consistently did not show signs of a fluid. To tackle this problem, the LHC ran oxygen-oxygen and neon-neon systems that are of intermediate sizes to look for these signatures. Here I will discuss predictions and postdictions for these intermediate systems, checks constraints on nonlinear causality within the fluid, and show results for energy loss using the relativistic viscous hydrodynamic code coupled to jets CCAKE+MELT from the heavy-ion simulation framework NuclearConfectionary.
