Research Projects

High-energy nuclear collisions aim to explore the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram, which predicts a transition from a hadronic gas to a deconfined state of quarks and gluons called the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). At high energy densities, QCD predicts a crossover transition between the quark-hadron transition and the first-order phase transition at smaller T and larger μB. Experiments at RHIC and LHC have provided evidence of the formation of QGP for matter close to μB = 0, but the existence of a critical point and first-order phase transition at higher μB remains to be confirmed experimentally. The BES program's phase-I at RHIC has localized most regions for understanding the QCD phase structure. The Hadron Resonance Gas (HRG) model has been successful in explaining data and extracting values of T and μB, including other freeze-out parameters such as strangeness and charge chemical potential. A systematic study in the high-μB regions of the QCD phase diagram is needed to search for the threshold of QGP formation using light-flavored hadrons. The extracted parameters can be used to map the QCD phase diagram and compare measured yields with experimental observations. This study is crucial to understand the freeze-out dynamics from lower to higher energies, and the energy, centrality, and rapidity dependence of the freeze-out parameters can help in understanding the QCD phase diagram.