PEOPLE

Professor Tang has been awarded titles such as Young Talent Award by the Ministry of Education and Rising Star in Education by Anhui Province, and is the winner of the Anhui Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund. His primary research fields include high-energy nuclear physics experiments and the development of particle detectors.

One characteristic of strong interactions is color confinement, where quarks carrying color charge are confined within hadrons. Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics predicts that ordinary nuclear matter will transform (phase transition) into a state composed of numerous quarks and gluons, known as Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), under extreme high temperature and density. The Big Bang theory suggests that our universe was in this state a few microseconds after the Big Bang. In-depth research into QGP can help humanity better understand the characteristics of strong interactions and the early evolution of the universe. Experimentally, QGP can be created under extreme conditions through ultra-high-energy nuclear collisions. The large international collaborative experiments currently participated in by Professor Tang include: 1）RHIC-STAR experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA; and 2）LHC-ALICE experiment at CERN. He also plays a significant role in the NICA-MPD experiment at JINR in Russia, currently under construction. In terms of experimental data analysis, he mainly uses heavy flavor hadrons, dileptons, and other particles produced in collisions as probes to study the characteristics of QGP. Additionally, he has established several phenomenological models to gain a deeper understanding of QGP properties.

In particle detector development, his research focuses on scintillator-based particle detectors and photodetectors such as photomultiplier tubes and SiPMs, including their performance study and applications. Currently, he is primarily responsible for developing large-size light-sensitive probes for the Water Cherenkov Detector Array and the Muon Detector Array at the LHAASO observatory and developing high-time-resolution detectors based on plastic scintillators.

He currently leads one key international cooperation project by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), one key project of the National Key R&D Program of China by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and one sub-project of the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program (Category B), among others.

Professor Tang has served as the Heavy Flavor Physics Working Group Convenor for the RHIC-STAR experiment. He is currently the Deputy Spokesperson for the JINR-NICA-MPD international collaboration, the Team Leader for the USTC group in the LHC-ALICE experiment, and an editorial board member of the journal Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics.

Research Directions

· Particle Detection Technology and Applications

· Experimental Physics with Accelerators

Project List

· CERN ALICE Experiment

· STAR Experiment at Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA

· Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO)

Education and Work Experience

· 2000 - 2004: Bachelor, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)

· 2004 - 2009: Ph.D. (Master-Ph.D. combined program), USTC

· 2007 - 2009: Joint Ph.D. under the China State-sponsored Joint Ph.D. Program, Brookhaven National Laboratory

· 2009 - 2011: Postdoctoral Fellow, USTC

· 2011 - 2020: Associate Professor, USTC

· 2020 - Present: Professor, USTC

Graduated Students

Physics Analysis

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Observation of an Antimatter Hypernucleus, Science 328, 58 (2010)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurement of sequential Upsilon suppression in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV with the STAR experiment,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 112301 (2023)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), First measurement of Lambda_c baryon production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 172301 (2020)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Observation of excess J/ψ yield at very low transverse momenta in Au Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV and U U collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 193 GeV,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 132302 (2019)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Low pT e+e- Pair Production in Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV and U+U Collisions at 193 GeV at STAR,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 132301 (2018)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Dielectron Mass Spectrum from Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 022301 (2014)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurement of J/ψ Azimuthal Anisotropy in Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 052301 (2013)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Identified Hadron Compositions in p+p and Au+Au Collisions at High Transverse Momemtum at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 072302 (2012)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Elliptic Flow of Heavy-Flavor Decay Electrons in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt{sNN} = 27 and 54.4 GeV at RHIC, Phys. Lett. B844, 138071 (2023)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurement of inclusive J/ψ suppression in Au Au collisions at 200 GeV through the dimuon channel at STAR, Phys. Lett. B797, 134917 (2019)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Energy Dependence of J/ψ production in Au+Au Collisionst at 39, 62.4 and 200 GeV, Phys. Lett. B771, 13 (2017)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Direct Virtual Photon Production in Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Lett. B770, 451 (2017)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Energy Dependence of Acceptance-Corrected Dielectron Exess Mass Spectrum at Mid-Rapidity in Au+Au Collisions at 19.6 and 200 GeV, Phys. Lett. B750, 64 (2015)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), J/ψ production at High Transverse Momentum in p+p and Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Lett. B722, 55 (2013)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurements of dielectron production in Au+Au collisions at 27, 39 and 62.4 GeV from the STAR experiment, Phys. Rev. C107, L061901 (2023)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), J/ψ production at High Transverse Momemtum in p+p and Cu+Cu Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C(R) 80, 041902 (2009)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Spin Alignment Measurements of the K* and Phi Vector Meson at RHIC, Phys. Rev. C(R) 77, 061902 (2008)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurements of inclusive J/ψ polarization in p+p collisions at 200 by the STAR detector, Phys. Rev. D102, 092009 (2020)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurements of the transverse-momentum-dependent cross sections of J/ψ production at mid-rapidity in proton proton collisions at 510 and 500 GeV with the STAR detector, Phys. Rev. D100, 052009 (2019)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Centrality and transverse momentum dependence of D0-meson production at mid-rapidity in Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C99, 034908 (2019)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Measurements of Dielectron Production in Au+Au Collision at 200 GeV from the STAR Experiment, Phys. Rev. C92, 024912 (2015)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Dielectron Azimuthal Anisotropy at Mid-Rapidity in Au+Au Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C90, 064904 (2014)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), Dielectron Spectrum at Mid-Rapidity in p+p Collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C86, 024906 (2012)

STAR Collaboration (Principal Author), K* Production in Cu+Cu and Au+Au Collisions at 62.4 and 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C84, 034909 (2011)

Phenomenology

Z. Liu, Z. Tang*, X. Wu and W. Zha*, Quantifying photoproduction correction to J/psi measurements in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at 200 GeV, Phys. Rev. C109, 034909 (2024)

W. Lv, Y. Li, Z. Li, R. Ma, Z. Tang*, P. Tribedy, C. Tsang, Z. Xu and W. Zha, Correlations of baryon and charge stopping in heavy ion collisions, Chin. Phys. C48, 044001 (2024)

Z. Li, W. Zha*, and Z. Tang*, Rescattering effect on the measurement of K* spin alignment in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C106, 064908 (2022)

W. Zha*, Z. Tang*, Discovery of higher-order quantum electrodynamics effect for the vacuum pair production, JHEP 08, 083 (2021)

W Zha, J. Brandenburg*, L. Ruan, and Z. Tang*, Exploring the double-slit interference with linearly polarized photons, Phys. Rev. D103, 033007 (2021)

W. Zha*, L. Ruan, Z. Tang*, Z. Xu and S. Yang, Coherent photo-produced J/ψ and dielectron yields in isobaric collisions, Phys. Lett. B789, 238 (2019)

W. Zha*, L. Ruan, Z. Tang*, Z. Xu and S. Yang, Double-slit experiment at Fermi scale: Coherent photoproduction in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C99, 061901 (2019)

W. Zha, L. Ruan, Z. Tang*, Z. Xu and S. Yang, Coherent lepton pair production in hadronic heavy ion collisions, Phys. Lett. B781, 182 (2018)

W. Zha, S. R. Klein, R. Ma, L. Ruan, T. Todoroki, Z. Tang*, Z. Xu, C. Yang, Q. Yang and S. Yang, Coherent J/ψ Photoproduction in Hadronic Heavy-ion Collisions, Phys. Rev. C97, 044910 (2018)

W. Zha, B. Huang, R. Ma, L. Ruan, Z. Tang*, Z. Xu, C. Yang, Q. Yang and S. Yang, Systematic study of the experimental measurements on J/ψ cross sections and kinematic distributions in p+p collisions at different energies, Phys. Rev. C93. 024919 (2016)

Kun Jiang, Yinying Zhu, Weitao Liu, Hongfang Chen, Cheng Li, Lijuan Ruan, Zebo Tang*, and Zhangbu Xu, Onset of radial flow in p+p collisions, Phys. Rev. C91, 024910 (2015)

Z. Tang, L. Yi, L. Ruan, M. Shao, C. Li, H. Chen, B. Mohanty and Z. Xu, The Statistical Origin of Constituent-Quark Scaling in QGP Hadronization, Chin. Phys. Lett. 30, 031201 (2013)

M. Shao, L. Yi, Z. Tang*, H. Chen, C. Li and Z. Xu, Examine the species and beam-energy dependence of particle spectra using Tsallis Statistics, J. Phys. G37, 085104 (2010)

Z. Tang, Y. Xu, L. Ruan, G. van Buren, F. Wang and Z. Xu*, Spectra and radial flow at RHIC with Tsallis statistics in a Blast-Wave description, Phys. Rev. C79, 051901 (2009)

Detector

Y. Li, K. Jiang*, X. Zhao, X. Li, C. Li, Z. Tang*,  High dynamic range base design and characterization of an 8-inch photomultiplier tube CR365-02-2 for the LHAASO-MD experiment, NIMA 1025, 166190 (2022)

K. Jiang, Z. Tang*, X. Li*, Z. Cao, C. Li, Y. Li, Z. Li, Z. Li, Z. Liang, P. Lu, K. Shen, K. Wang, Y. Wang and X. Wu, Qualification tests of 997 8-inch photomultiplier tubes for the water Cherenkov detector array of the LHAASO experiment, NIMA 995, 165108 (2021)

K. Jiang, Z. Tang*, X. Li and C. Li, Study of the water Cherenkov detector with high dynamic range for LHAASO, JINST 15, C08021 (2020)

Y. Ji, Z. Tang*, C. Li, X. Li and M, Shao, A novel fast response and radiation-resistant scintillator detector for beam loss monitor, JINST 12, C07042 (2017)

X. Zhao, Z. Tang*, C. Li, X. Li, W. Zha, H. Chen, Y. Zhang, M. Shao, Y. Sun and Y. Zhou, Characterization of HZC XP1805 photomultiplier tube for LHAASO-WCDA with a high dynamic range base, JINST 11, P10012 (2016)

X. Zhao, Z. Tang*, C. Li, H. Chen, Y. Zhang, X. Li, M. Shao, Y. Sun, W. Zha and Y. Zhou, Afterpulse measurement for 8-inch candidate PMTs for LHAASO, JINST 11, T05002 (2016)

Proceedings, Reviews

Z. Tang*, Quarkonium production: An experimental overview, Nucl. Phys. A 1005, 121942 (2021). Contribution to Quark Matter 2019

Z. Tang, W. Zha and Y. Zhang*, An experimental review of open heavy flavor and quarkonium production at RHIC, Nucl. Sci. Tech. 31, 81 (2020)

W. Zha, Z. Tang*, Experimental review of quarkonium production in heavy-ion collisions, Nucl. Part. Phys. Proc. 289-290, 83 (2017). Contribution to Hard Probes 2016

Phone: +86-551-63607940

Personal Homepage: http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/~zbtang