In 1934, shortly after the birth of quantum electrodynamics (QED), Breit and Wheeler predicted that matter could be created directly in the collision of two photons. Nearly a century later, this process - the last fundamental process in QED - was observed in ultra-peripheral heavy-ion collisions, where the intense, ultra-Lorentz-contracted electromagnetic fields of passing nuclei act as photon colliders. The measurement also revealed that these photons are linearly polarized, which produces a striking azimuthal modulation in the produced lepton pairs. This polarization gives us a new experimental tool for probing the nucleus and the quantum structure of the photoproduction process itself.
From this polarization also springs a surprising quantum phenomenon: so-called "entanglement-enabled spin interference" which, contrary to conventional expectation, leads to quantum interference between distinguishable particles. This novel form of interference provides a powerful tool for probing the mysteries of the strong nuclear force, making possible the imaging of nuclei at the Femtometer scale. Finally, I will reflect on the potential for this technique to continue to provide discovery measurements at future collider experiments.
Hello! My name is James "Daniel" Brandenburg. After graduating in 2018 with my PhD from Rice University, I began a post-doc at Brookhaven National Laboratory and continued on as a Goldhaber Fellow (2019-2021) before moving to OSU as an assistant professor in 2022. I have been an active member of the STAR collaboration since starting as a graduate student where I have served in management roles such as the Physics Working Group Co-Convener for Light-Flavor Spectra and Ultra-Peripheral Collisions as the Software coordinator for the STAR Forward Rapidity Upgrade. I have been an active member of the ePIC collaboration since its official formation and lead the OSU epic group.
My research has recently focused on ultra- peripheral collisions as a tool for studying both Quantum Electrodynamics and Quantum Chromodynamics in novel regimes. My interests revolve around nuclear structure and entanglement in high energy interactions fo r interrogating the gluon distribution within large and dense nuclear environments. My scientific and service contributions have earned a 2022 Blavatnik Regional Award for Young Scientists, a Goldhaber Distinguished Fellowship at Brookhaven National Laboratory (2020), and the Elsevier Nuclear Physics A Young Scientist Award (2019).