Nattrass, Christine
Christine Nattrass
Professor and Director of the Undergraduate Program | Experimental Nuclear Physics
Brief Vita
- PhD, Physics, Yale University (2009)
- M.Phil., Yale University (2006)
- M.Sc., Yale University (2005)
- BS, Physics, Biochemistry, and Physical Science (2003)
- Professor, Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, (2023-present)
Director of the Undergraduate Program in Physics - Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, (2018-2023)
Director of the Undergraduate Program in Physics - Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, University of Tennessee (2012-2018)
- Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Tennessee (2009-2012)
Selected Honors
- American Physical Society 5 Sigma Physicist Award (2020)
- UTK Society of Physics Students Teacher of the Year (2016)
- American Physical Society CSWP Woman Physicist of the Month (May 2012)
Research Areas
Relativistic Heavy-Ion Physics (RHIP)
The research of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics (RHIP) group is focused on the study of nuclear matter at extreme temperatures and densities, which is an exciting field on the borderline between nuclear and high energy physics. At these extreme conditions of temperature and density nuclear matter will undergo a phase transition to a Quark-Gluon Plasma. In this new phase nuclear matter no longer consists primarily of protons and neutrons, but instead of deconfined quarks and gluons. Experimentally we are creating high-temperature nuclear matter by colliding heavy nuclei (heavy ions) at very high energies (ultrarelativistic energies) at nuclear accelerators.
Selected Recent Publications
- “Model studies of fluctuations in the background for jets in heavy ion collisions,” Charles
Hughes, Antonio Da Silva, and Christine Nattrass. Submitted to PRC. - “Measurement of charged jet cross section in pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV,” (ALICE
Collaboration) Phys. Rev. D 100, 092004 (2019). Chair of internal review committee. - “Measurement of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays as a function of
multiplicity in p-Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV,” (ALICE Collaboration). JHEP02 (2020) 077. On IRC. - “Methods for separation of deuterons produced in the medium and in jets in high energy
collisions,” Natasha Sharma, Tony Perez, Andy Castro, Lokesh Kumar, Christine Nattrass, Phys. Rev. C 98, 014914 (2018). - “Event plane dependence of the flow modulated background in di-hadron and jet-hadron correlations in heavy ion collisions,” Christine Nattrass and Takahito Todoroki, Phys. Rev. C 97, 054911 (2018).
- “Jet quenching: an iconic result revisited,” Christine Nattrass, Phys. Rev. C 97, 034916 (2018).
- “Reaction plane dependence of jet-hadron correlations in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV,” Phys. Rev. C 101, 064901 (2020). Supervised work, on paper committee.
- “Review of Jet Measurements in Heavy Ion Collisions,” Megan Connors, Christine Nattrass, Rosi Reed, Sevil Salur. Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 025005 (2018).
- “Disappearance of the Mach Cone in heavy ion collisions,” Christine Nattrass, Natasha Sharma,
Joel Mazer, Meghan Stuart, Aram Bejnood. Phys. Rev. C 94, 011901 (2016). - “Measurement of transverse energy at midrapidity in Pb–Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV,” (ALICE Collaboration). Phys. Rev. C 94 (2016), 034903. Paper committee chair. Did majority of analysis, led the group working on the analysis, and wrote the majority of the paper and analysis note.
- “Near-side azimuthal and pseudorapidity correlations using neutral strange baryons and mesons in d+Au, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at √ s NN = 200 GeV” (STAR collaboration) Phys. Rev. C 94 (2016), 014910. Did analysis and writing and wrote analysis note with Jana Bielcikova.
- “Background subtraction in di-hadron and jet-hadron correlations,” Natasha Sharma, Joel Mazer, Meghan Stuart, and Christine Nattrass. Phys. Rev. C 93 (2016), 044915.
- “Nuclear modification of strange and multi-strange hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV,” (ALICE Collaboration). To be submitted to EPJC. On internal review committee.
- “Measurement of two-particle correlations with respect to second- and third-order event planes in Au + Au collisions at √ s NN = 200 GeV,” (PHENIX collaboration). Phys. Rev. C 99, 054903 (2019). Chair of internal review committee.
- “Charged jet cross section and fragmentation in proton-proton collisions at √s =7 TeV, ” (ALICE Collaboration). Phys. Rev. D 99, 012016 (2018). On paper committee, stepped in as chair.
Highly-Cited Publications
- “Long-range angular correlations on the near and away side in p–Pb collisions at √sNN= 5.02 TeV,” B. Abelev et al. Physics Letters B 719 (1-3), 29-41 (2013).
- “Elliptic Flow of Charged Particles in Pb-Pb Collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV,” K. Aamodt et al. Physical Review Letters 105 (25), 252302 (2010).
- “Performance of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC,” Alice Collaboration International Journal of Modern Physics A 29 (24), 1430044 (2014).