Multi-particle production in high energy QCD: from quantum entanglement to correlations

Heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider provide unique possibility of creating and studying a new state of matter, known as quark gluon plasma, at energy densities and temperatures similar to those of the early Universe at 1O”5 seconds after the Big Bang. The microscopic theory describing the structure of protons and nuclei is the theory of strong interactions, know as Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). Even though the fundamental theory is known, it is extremely difiicult to deduce irom the QCD results of collision processes. This is due to the high level of complexity of the theory involving mutual interactions between gluons, the "’photons” of strong interactions. When probed at very high energies, heavy nuclei, and even protons, appear as Very dense clouds of gluons. The main objective of this proposal is to develop the theory of high energy collisions of dense gluonic objects using first principle QCD calculation.