Speaker
Description
The $\phi$ meson is a unique probe of strange quark dynamics in high-energy nuclear collisions. The $\phi$ meson's mass lies at the threshold between perturbative and nonperturbative QCD. Consequently, $\phi$ production provides sensitivity to both regimes. In heavy-ion collisions, $\phi$-meson production is senstive to strange-quark coalescence in quark-gluon plasma. The $\phi$ meson's net-zero strangeness means that $\phi$ production measurements can help disentangle the physical mechanisms behind strangeness enhancement in high-energy hadron and nucleaer collisions. The LHCb detector's hadron identification capabilities allow for precise studies of $\phi$ meson production in nuclear collisions. In addition, the SMOG system allows LHCb to study $\phi$ production in fixed-target collisions. New measurements of $\phi$ production in both collider and fixed-target configurations will be presented.
