Quantum chromodynamics in high energy collisions

Abstract

The purpose of the project is to study the high-energy (GeV TeV) hadron-hadron, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions, in order to clarify: a) the nature and properties of the nuclear matter, its forms of excitation and its new state under high-density and high-temperature conditions, the quark-gluon plasma; and b) the quark-gluon confinement in hadrons, interactions of the latter and the properties of QCD vacuum. This study faces with the problem of describing strongly-interacting many-body systems controlled by a relativistic dynamics, to which no fundamental and tractable theory is available yet. Within this context, the elaboration of phenomenological models is crucial as an intermediate step toward this direction. Simultaneously, a deeper understanding of certain properties of hadronic matter such as quark confinement and dynamical chiral symmetry breaking, from the first principles of QCD, is fundamental. Specifically, problems treated in the project are a) lattice QCD simulations; b) effective field theories; c) models for elastic, inelastic and diffractive collisions of hadrons; d) models of hadrons (Skyrmions and bags); e) production and suppression of strangeness and charm in hadronic matter; f) transport phenomena, relativistic hydrodynamics and phase transitions in QCD. (AU)