Dihadron Fragmentation Functions In Proton-Proton Collisions At The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (rhic)

DIHADRON FRAGMENTATION FUNCTIONS INPROTON+PROTON COLLISIONS AT THE RELATIVISTIC HEAVYION COLLIDER (RHIC)byMUHAMMAD ELNIMRAugust 2010 Advisor: Dr. Claude Pruneau Major: High Energy Nuclear Physics Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Measurements of azimuthal correlations at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider(RHIC) have shown an away-side that is suppressed in Au+Au collisions comparedto proton+proton/Deuteron+proton collisions. Such suppression is taken as a signa-ture of the predicted QCD dense medium. However, the near-side of the azimuthalcorrelations shows little modification. The near-side of such correlations is related tothe ratio of the dihadron fragmentation function to the single one. As such, dihadronfragmentation functions shall provide a better basis for the interpretation of the near-side correlations. Dihadron fragmentation functions in p+p collisions also provide abaseline of such measurements in heavy ion collisions.