Professor of Physics
About
Professor Aidala works in experimental high-energy nuclear physics, on the border between nuclear and particle physics. Her research is focused on nucleon structure and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory of the strong force. She’s particularly interested in spin-momentum correlations inside the proton, loosely analogous to the quantum
electrodynamical spin-orbit and spin-spin couplings in the hydrogen atom.
She currently carries out her research as part of large, international collaborations working at two different facilities. She is a member of the PHENIX and future sPHENIX experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Lab, and of the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. She is additionally working toward the realization of a new facility for the study of quantum chromodynamics, the Electron-Ion Collider.
Professor Aidala holds both a 2015 Sloan Research Fellowship and a 2015 NSF CAREER Award.
Selected Publications
The Spin Structure of the Nucleon, (C.A. Aidala, S.D. Bass, D. Hasch, and G.K. Mallot), Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 655 (2013).
Cross Sections and Double-Spin Asymmetries of Midrapidity Inclusive Charged Hadron Production in p+p collisions at 62.4 GeV, (A. Adare et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D86, 092006 (2013).
Global Analysis of Fragmentation Functions for Eta Mesons, (C.A. Aidala, F. Ellinghaus, R. Sassot, J.P. Seele, and M. Stratmann), Phys. Rev. D83, 034002 (2011).
Measurement of Neutral Mesons in p+p collisions at 200 GeV and Scaling Properties of Hadron Production, (A. Adare et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D83, 052004 (2011).
Cross Section and Double Helicity Asymmetry for Eta Mesons and Their Comparison to Neutral Pion Production in Proton-Proton Collisions at 200 GeV, (A. Adare et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D83, 032001 (2011).
Gluons and the Quark Sea at High Energies: Distributions, Polarization, Tomography, (D. Boer et al.), Summary Report of the INT Program on the Science Case for the Electron-Ion Collider, Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, September 13 – November 19, 2010, arXiv:1108.1713.
Double Helicity Dependence of Jet Properties from Dihadrons in Longitudinally Polarized p+p Collisions at 200 GeV, (A. Adare et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D81, 012002 (2010).
A High Luminosity, High Energy Electron-Ion Collider, (C. Aidala et al.), white paper prepared for the NSAC Long Range Plan (2007).
Physics Opportunities with e+A Collisions at an Electron-Ion Collider, (C. Aidala et al.), white paper prepared for the NSAC Long Range Plan (2007).
Towards an Understanding of Nucleon Spin Structure: From Hard to Soft Scales, (S.D. Bass and C.A. Aidala), Int. J. Mod. Phys. A21, 4407-4424 (2006).
Measurement of Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetries for Mid-Rapidity Production of Neutral Pions and Charged Hadrons in Polarized p+p Collisions at 200 GeV, (S.S. Adler et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 202001 (2005).
Double Helicity Asymmetry in Inclusive Mid-Rapidity Neutral Pion Production for Polarized p+p Collisions at 200 GeV, (S.S. Adler et al., PHENIX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 202002 (2004).