The QCD phase diagram: recent advances, and its significance in modern physics

Relatore: 
Massimo Mannarelli
Data e ora: 
Martedì, 7 Novembre, 2023 - 15:00
Aula: 
Sala Conferenze
Abstract: 

Understanding strong interactions in hot and/or dense matter is one of the toughest, but also most interesting, challenges in modern physics. Within the standard model of particle physics, strong interactions are successfully described as gluon-mediated interactions among quarks by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The phase diagram of QCD, in the temperature-baryon density plane, is very rich and includes many different phases, namely the confinement phase, the quark-gluon plasma phase at high temperature, the very dense phases and so on. We delve into recent advancements in our comprehension of this complex phase diagram. Researchers have made significant progress by employing a combination of theoretical tools, including Lattice QCD simulations, Schwinger-Dyson equations, Functional Renormalization Group (FRG) methods, and effective models. We student-friendly review the recent progresses on the QCD phase diagram, focusing on the phase transitions at finite baryon chemical potential, and discuss the relevance of this diagram in several problems of modern physics, that include high energy nuclear collisions, the early universe, and the core of compact stellar objects.

[Image in infographics taken, with permission, from D. Avramescu et al., Phys. Rev. D 107, 114021 (2023)]

 

Bio: 
Dr Massimo Mannarelli graduated in Physics in 1998 at the University of Bari and obtained the PhD in 2003 at the University of Bari. In 2004 moved to the Texas A&M University as postdoctoral fellow to work on the physics of the quark-gluon plasma. In 2005 he gained the Bruno Rossi post-doctoral fellowship and moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to work mainly on color superconductors. In the period 2007-2011 he moved to Barcelona as a postdoctoral fellow where he continued to work on color superconductors and on applications of  Quantum Chromodynamics to compact stellar objects and relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Currently he is a researcher at the Gran Sasso facility and his  research activity is focused on Quantum Chromodynamics, Astrophysics and High Energy Physics.  Particularly, his research interests include the physics of the strong interaction relevant for compact stars,  and the study of the transport properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.