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HDM2012 : International Workshop on Hot and Dense Nuclear and Astrophysical Matter

Dates : 26 - 30 November 2012
Venue : University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Accommodation : Accommodation around UJ APK Campus

Scientific

By its nature, science is constantly evolving, and new research fields continuously emerge, in part out of the convergence of fundamental questions of several established fields, the combination of their technologies, and the fertile interaction of scientists of different training. The relatively new fields of relativistic nuclear collisions, of particle and nuclear astrophysics, gravitation and cosmology provides interesting examples of such vitality.

Hot and dense nuclear matter plays an important role in the quark-hadron transition shortly after the big bang, in the element production in stars and the interior of neutron stars. The properties of such matter under extreme conditions can be studied in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Several countries operate facilities or have plans to build new accelerator systems, such as FAIR at Darmstadt and NICA at Dubna, to investigate hot and dense nuclear matter in heavy-ion collisions. Current experiments are conducted at GSI in Darmstadt, the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) in Brookhaven and, since the end of 2009, at the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) in the ALICE experiment at CERN in Geneva. The primary aim of the experiments at the high-energy frontier is to study a new state of matter, the 'quark-gluon-plasma' (QGP) and to infer its equation of state and transport properties. The interpretation of the data involves substantial theoretical efforts in non-perturbative and perturbative QCD, as well as in large-scale hydrodynamical and transport simulations.

This workshop is aimed at providing experimental and theoretical tools to allow deep understanding of the open problems in the physical processes occurring in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and in the Universe. The workshop is cross-disciplinary, being widely recognized that no advance in the understanding of the Universe is possible without the cooperation of different disciplines, from elementary particle physics to nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology, each with its own approach and computational tools.

The topics of the school/workshop have been chosen in the young and fast expanding fields at the interphase between nuclear, particle, and astrophysics. The idea is to bring together internationally highly recognized experts in the field with young scientists and students. In the morning the experts give introductory and review lectures of general and special topics, while the afternoon is mainly devoted to seminars of the participants, leaving time for discussions and special topical schools.

The scope of the school will cover the following topics:

School Topics:

1. Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions and the Phase Transition of Nuclear Matter
2. Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics
3. Particle Physics and High Energy Physics
4. Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics
5. Relativistic Fluid Dynamics
6. Transport Theory

Physics Case of the School

With the participation of South African scientists at CERN and with South Africa hosting SKA, there is a strong need for a school to prepare physics and astrophysics students, and emerging researchers, in these fields. Students and emerging researchers from the previously disadvantaged universities are encouraged to attend the school and the workshop. The school lectures will be at an introductory level on the above topics to prepare them for the workshop and the Kruger 2012 conference.

The scope of the workshop will cover the following topics:

Workshop Topics:

1. The QCD phase diagram
2. Hydrodynamic evolution of the fireball
3. Transport models for relativistic heavy-ion collisions
4. Transport properties of strong-interaction matter
5. Results from LHC experiments
6. Heavy-ion collisions at high baryon densities
7. Heavy-ion collisions at high energy densities

Physics Case of the Workshop

1. 1. The equation of state and transport properties of strong-interaction matter

As matter gets heated and compressed it ultimately undergoes a transition from confined hadrons to quasi-free quarks and gluons. The current under-standing is, that the resulting change in degrees of freedom leads to a smooth cross-over transition at small quark chemical potential in which spontaneously broken chiral symmetry is restored and quarks and gluons are liberated. Although detailed lattice studies of the equation of state (EoS) in this regime seem to converge to realistic answers, the computation of transport properties of the QGP from first principles remains elusive. At high chemical potential, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram becomes very rich, featuring phases familiar from condensed matter physics. Here the hadron-to-quark transition is much less understood.

1. 2. Simulation of heavy-ion reactions

To interpret heavy-ion data, complex numerical simulations of the collision dynamics are necessary. These include relativistic hydrodynamics and sophisticated transport theory. Of particular interest are hydrodynamical descriptions with non-ideal fluid components in the energy-momentum tensor. At present, a detailed understanding of the transport coefficients of strong-interaction matter is still lacking. Other uncertainties are fluctuations in the initial conditions of the hydro-evolution and the consequences on collective flow variables.

1. 3. Hot and dense matter at small baryo-chemical potential

Heavy-ion experiments at very high center-of-mass energies, presently conducted at RHIC and most recently also at the LHC probe strong-interaction matter at high temperatures but small net baryon densities. The results are thus of direct relevance for the state of the early universe after a few microseconds. Here questions of the high-temperature EoS, the propagation of partons through hot and dense quark-gluon matter, charm production and the radiation of photons and di-leptons are at the focus to research program.

1. 4. Reaching high baryon densities

The RHIC low-energy run and planned heavy-ion experiments at NICA and FAIR are designed to explore regions of high baryo-chemical potential in the QCD phase diagram.