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Department of Physics & Astronomy

College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

Richard Seto

Richard Seto

Professor

  • Ph.D. 1983, Columbia University
Research Areas
  • Experimental Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics
Contact Information
Physics & Astronomy
Physics 3029
951-827-5623
richard.seto@ucr.edu

I am interested in aspects of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in the bulk. The fundamental topics I am currently investigating are broadly related to: (1) understanding the origin of mass which is connected to the QCD vacuum (2) The understanding of a state of matter in which quarks and gluons are released from their confinement in proton and neutrons — a state loosely called a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The early universe, a few microseconds after the Big Bang should have existed in such a state. How do we study this? Collisions of heavy ions such as the nuclei of Gold, produce nuclear matter at extreme conditions of temperature and density (a 100 million times hotter than the sun). In this environment, we expect that nuclear matter will undergo a change of phase to a state in which quarks become free to move about within a confinement volume much larger than hadronic states (a QGP). It is likely that in this environment the QCD vacuum is being modified, thereby allowing the possibility of observing the generation of mass directly in QCD with the partial restoration of chiral symmetry. This work is done using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, NY. There is a substantial puzzle in how the QGP forms. It appears to thermalize in about 0.6 fm/c while the size of the system is at least 7  fm across. Recently we have been working on the design and construction of a new device the MPC-EX which will measure very low-x gluons in a cold nucleus to see if there is something special about the initial conditions. A partial detector has been installed for an enginneering run. The plan is to have the full detector installed and commissioned for the run in 2015.

Awards Received
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society (2012)

Service and Awards:

2013-Present

Convener, Photons, Light Vector Mesons, Hadrons, Flow Physics Working Group – PHENIX

2013

Innovative Teaching Award

2012

Fellow of the American Physical Society.

09/2011 – 06/2012

Member. Program Committee Division of Nuclear Physics. American Physical Society. 

09/2010 – 9/2013

Editor - Physical Review C . 

01/2007 – 12/2009

Deputy Spokesperson. Project Mangement. PHENIX. 

06/2002 – 06/2006

Member. National Nuclear Physics Summer School. Divison of Nuclear Physics American Physical Society. 

01/2001 – 12/2003

Chair. AGS Users Executive Committee. AGS. 

01/2000 – 12/2003

Member. Nuclear Science Advisory Committee. DOE/NSF. 

01/2000 – 12/2001

Member. NSAC Long Range Plan Working Group . DOE/NSF. 

01/1998 – 12/2001

Member. Program Committee, Divsion of Nuclear Physics, . American Physical Society. 

01/1998 – 12/2001

Convener. Light Vector Meson, Heavy Quark Physics Working Group. PHENIX. 

02/1997 – 02/2000

Member. Program Committee Division of Nuclear Physics. Divison of Nuclear Physics American Physical Society. 

01/1997 – 01/2011

Member. PHENIX Executive Committee. PHENIX. 

01/1997 – 12/2001

Chair. PHENIX Theory Interface Committee. PHENIX. 

01/1996 – 12/2004

Spokesperson. Experiment E917. 
Publications
  1. "Summary of Experimental Results: Photons, Leptons and Heavy Quarks," R. Seto, J. Phys. G 35, 104043 (2008)[arXiv:0807.1955]. Talk given at Quark Matter 2008: 20th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collisions (QM 2008), Jaipur, India, 4−10 Feb 2008.
  2. "Onset of π0 Suppression Studied in Cu+Cu Collisions at √sNN=22.4, 62.4, and 200 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 162301 (2008) [arXiv:0801.4555].
  3. "Quantitative Constraints on the Opacity of Hot Partonic Matter from Semi-Inclusive Single High Transverse Momentum Pion Suppression in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. C 77, 064907 (2008)[arXiv:0801.1665].
  4. "Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 172301 (2007) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0611018].
  5. "J/ψ production vs centrality, transverse momentum, and rapidity in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 232301 (2007) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0611020].
  6. " Inclusive cross-section and double helicity asymmetry for π0 production in p+p collisions at √s = 200 GeV: Implications for the polarized gluon distribution in the proton. By PHENIX Collaboration", Phys. Rev. D 76, 051106 (2007) [arXiv:0704.3599].
  7. "System size and energy dependence of jet-induced hadron pair correlation shapes in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200-GeV and 62.4 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 232302 (2007) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0611019].
  8. "Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," A. Adare et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 162301 (2007) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0608033]
  9. "An experimental overview of results presented at SQM 2006" R. Seto, J. Phys. G 32, S1 (2006) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0606034]. Presented at International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2006), Los Angeles, California, 26−31 Mar 2006.
  10. “ Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration” K. Adcox et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Nucl. Phys. A 757, 184 (2005) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0410003].
  11. "Production of φ mesons at mid-rapidity in √sNN=200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC," S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. C 72, 014903 (2005) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0410012].
  12. "Identified charged particle spectra and yields in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. C 69, 034909 (2004) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0307022].
  13. "Suppressed π0 production at large transverse momentum in central Au + Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) = 200-GeV" S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 072301 (2003) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0304022].
  14. “Absence of suppression in particle production at large transverse momentum in √sNN=200 GeV d+Au collisions,” S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 072303 (2003)  [arXiv:nucl-ex/0306021].
  15. "Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Au+Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV," S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration] Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 182301 (2003) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0305013].
  16. “Mid-rapidity neutral pion production in p+p collisions at √sNN=200 GeV,” S. S. Adler et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 241803 (2003) [hep-ex/0304038]
  17. "PHENIX detector overview," K. Adcox et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 499, 469 (2003).
  18. “Suppression of hadrons with large transverse momentum in central Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 130 GeV,” K. Adcox et al. [PHENIX Collaboration] Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 022301 (2002) [nucl-ex/0109003].
  19. "Production of φ mesons in Au+Au collisions at 11.7 A GeV/c," B. B. Back et al. [E917 Collaboration], Phys. Rev. C 69, 054901 (2004) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0304017].
  20. "Antilambda production in Au+Au collisions at 11.7 A GeV/c," B. B. Back et al. [E917 Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 242301 (2001) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0101008].
  21. "Centrality dependence of charged particle multiplicity in Au-Au collisions at √sNN = 130 GeV," K. Adcox et al. [PHENIX Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 3500 (2001) [arXiv:nucl-ex/0012008].
  22. "Baryon rapidity loss in relativistic Au+Au collisions" B. B. Back et al. [E917 Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 1970 (2001)[arXiv:nucl-ex/0003007].
  23. "Heavy ion physics from Bevalac to RHIC. Proceedings, Relativistic Heavy Ion Symposium, APS Centennial Meeting, Atlanta, USA, March 20−26, 1999" R. Seto, Singapore: World Scientifc (1999) 322 p.
  24. "Search for muon-neutrino oscillations muon-neutrino → electron-neutrino (anti-muon- neutrino → anti-electron-neutrino in a wide band neutrino beam," L. Borodovsky et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 274 (1992)
  25. A Proposal for the Muon Piston Calorimeter Extension (MPC-EX) to the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC, : arXiv:1301.1096 (2013).

  26. "Neutral pion production with respect to centrality and reaction plane in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV" Phys. Rev. C 87, 034911 (2013) ,  arXiv:1208.2254

  27. "Direct Photon Production in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV in Mid-rapidity"   Phys. Rev. D 86, 072008 (2012) ,  arXiv:1205.5533

  28. The sPHENIX Forward Angle Spectrometer  PHENIX Collaboration (Richard Seto (UC, Riverside) for the collaboration). Jul 2012. 4 pp. Conference Proceedings of the 5th International Conference Hard and Electromagnetic Probes  of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions.

  29. "Ground and excited charmonium state production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV" Phys. Rev. D 85, 092004 (2012),   arXiv:1105.1966 

  30. "Measurement of neutral mesons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV and scaling properties of hadron production"   Phys. Rev. D 83, 052004 (2011)  arXiv:1005.3674

  31. "Photon-Hadron Jet Correlations in p+p and Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV"

     Phys. Rev. C 80, 024908 (2009)  arXiv:0903.3399

For a complete list of publications please see

http://inspirehep.net/search?ln=en&ln=en&p=find+a+seto%2C+r&of=hb&action_search=Search&sf=&so=d&rm=&rg=25&sc=0

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