Emanuele Quercigh (born 1934 in
Naples,
Italy) is an Italian particle physicist who works since 1964 at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
, most known for the discovery of
quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Quercigh moved as a child to
Friuli with his mother and his younger brother after the early death of his father.
Quercigh studied physics at the
University of Milan in Italy, where he became assistant of professor
Giuseppe Occhialini in 1959.
In 1964 Quercigh moved to
Geneva,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, where he took up a position as fellow at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
and subsequently became a staff physicist. Initially Quercigh took part in various experiments using the
CERN 2 m Bubble Chamber. Then he proposed and led, together with David Lord, the ERASME project, a machine for scanning and measuring film from
BEBC.
In 1974, Quercigh was appointed spokesperson of the
T209 experiment, a bubble chamber experiment studying high statistics 8.25 GeV/c K–p, which discovered the φ(1850) particle–the first Regge recurrence of the
φ meson–and performed a detailed study of the lifetime of the
Ω–baryon, as well as a first evaluation of its spin.
As of 1979 Quercigh was the leading scientist for various
CERN SPS experiments using the Omega Spectrometer, a facility he promoted with colleagues already in 1968, studying
quantum chromodynamics
In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...
(QCD) processes,
hadron spectroscopy Hadron spectroscopy is the subfield of particle physics that studies the masses and decays of hadrons. Hadron spectroscopy is also an important part of the new nuclear physics. The properties of hadrons are a consequence of a theory called quantum c ...
and particle and soft photon production mechanisms. This activity focused on the production of
baryons and
anti-baryons carrying one or more
strange quark
The strange quark or s quark (from its symbol, s) is the third lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle. Strange quarks are found in subatomic particles called hadrons. Examples of hadrons containing strange quarks include kaons ( ...
s in
heavy-ion collisions
High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerato ...
. Quercigh was the CERN contact man or spokesman for the
WA85,
WA94 and
WA97 experiments addressing
strangeness and quark-gluon plasma
In particle physics, strangeness ("''S''") is a property of particles, expressed as a quantum number, for describing decay of particles in strong and electromagnetic interactions which occur in a short period of time. The strangeness of a pa ...
. When CERN announced the observation of
the QGP in February 2000, he presented the
strange particle production results on behalf of these collaborations.
Together with
Jürgen Schukraft
Jürgen or Jurgen is a popular masculine given name in Germany, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands. It is cognate with George. Notable people named Jürgen include:
A
*Jürgen Ahrend (born 1930), German organ builder
* Jürgen Alzen (bo ...
and
Hans Gutbrod
Hans may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People
* Hans (name), a masculine given name
* Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician
** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans
** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...
, Quercigh laid down the foundations of the
LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundre ...
ALICE experiment. He was then elected as the first chairman of the ALICE Collaboration Board on 20 April 1994 for the period from 1994 to 1998.
After retirement from CERN in 1999, Quercigh is honorary staff member. In the years 2000, 2001 and 2003 he was guest professor at the
University of Padua.
Publications
* (with
M. Jacob) Symposium on the CERN Omega Spectrometer : 25 Years of Physics, 19 Mar 1997, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
* (with S. Hegarty and K. Potter) Joint International Lepton-Photon Symposium and Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, Geneva, Switzerland, 25 July – 1 August 1991 (in two volumes,1992)
* List of publications recorded in
Inspire-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1970 ...
Awards and honours
* Gold Medal of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of
Comenius University,
Bratislava
Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
*
Slovak Academy of Sciences' Diorys llkovic Gold Honour Medal for Achievements in Physics
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Quercigh, Emanuele
Living people
People associated with CERN
University of Milan alumni
Experimental physicists
20th-century Italian physicists
1934 births