September 30, 2025 (remote) - 10AM

Prof. Anthony Timmins (University of Houston)

Location: LBL B70 R228

Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Mateusz Ploskon

Title: Recent results from light-ion collisions by ALICE at the LHC

Abstract: During the twenty years since the discovery of the perfect fluid at RHIC with gold-gold collisions, one key question has persisted: how small can this fluid be? The recent light-ion collisions at the LHC offer a unique opportunity to address this by bridging the system-size gap between proton–nucleus and heavy-ion collisions. While proton–proton and proton–nucleus systems have exhibited features reminiscent of quark–gluon plasma formation, such as strangeness enhancement and collective flow, hydrodynamic interpretations and jet-quenching searches remain inconclusive. I will present the first ALICE results from light-ion collisions, with an emphasis on collective phenomena and high-momentum probes. Comparisons with measurements from other LHC experiments will be discussed to assess whether a global picture is emerging. Together, these results provide new insight into the possibility that droplets of quark–gluon plasma are created in oxygen–oxygen and neon–neon collisions.

Bio: Anthony Timmins is a Professor of Physics at the University of Houston. He received his PhD from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2008, where he investigated the production of neutral strange particles in copper–copper collisions at RHIC. His current research centers on measurements of collective flow in heavy-ion collisions, providing insight into both the geometric structure of the colliding nuclei and the properties of the quark–gluon plasma they produce. He is a member of the ALICE collaboration at the LHC and will become a deputy spokesperson of ALICE in 2026.