The FLOALESCENCE project explores one of the most fundamental questions in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD): how quarks and gluons transition from a deconfined Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP) into ordinary hadrons.?This transition, called hadronization, occurred microseconds after the Big Bang and can be recreated today in ultra-relativistic lead–lead collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The PhD will focus on charm quarks—excellent probes of the QGP because they are produced early in the collision and interact throughout its evolution. Using the LHCb detector, uniquely sensitive in the forward rapidity region, the project aims to measure the elliptic flow (v2) of charmed baryons (?c+) and mesons (D0) in Pb–Pb collisions.?The goal is to test whether these heavy quarks thermalize and hadronize through a coalescence mechanism, a key feature of QGP dynamics.

Objectives and tasks:
- Extract and analyze ?c+ and D0 signals in newly collected 2024–2025 Pb–Pb datasets at LHCb.
- Implement a novel flow analysis method (based on the reformulated Lee–Yang Zeros approach) for the first time at LHCb.
- Develop an event-by-event multiplicity metric to correlate flow with system energy density.
- Compare results to theoretical models and cross-check with measurements at central rapidity (ALICE).
- Publish results and present findings at international conferences.

The successful candidate will:
- Develop advanced data-analysis expertise with CERN’s LHCb software framework, ROOT, and machine learning–based signal extraction.
- Gain in-depth knowledge of QCD and relativistic heavy-ion physics, especially QGP properties and collective phenomena.
- Learn modern statistical methods for flow analysis and uncertainty estimation.
- Acquire collaborative and communication skills within a major international experiment (LHCb), including presentations in collaboration meetings and conferences.
- Build strong experience in scientific computing, big-data handling, and detector physics, valuable for both academic and industry careers.