Related papers: Recent Theoretical Developments in Strongly Couple…

This MSc dissertation is based on the papers arXiv:2502.12694 and arXiv:2408.14813. The AdS/CFT correspondence provides a powerful framework for modeling strongly coupled gauge theories and, as a consequence, investigating non-perturbative…

The exploration of the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) phase diagram is a central goal of relativistic heavy-ion collision experiments. This review focuses on the role of fluctuations and correlations as sensitive probes of the phase…

Hard QCD results in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with jets from data recorded up to the end of 2010 by the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the LHC are reported. Inclusive jet and di-jet cross section measurements as well as…

For the first time, physicists are in the position to precisely study a fully relativistic quantum field theory: Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD). QCD is a central element of the Standard Model and provides the theoretical framework for…

The onset of thermalization in heavy ion collisions in the weak coupling framework can be viewed as a transition from the initial state Color Glass Condensate dynamics, characterized by the energy density scaling like $\epsilon \sim 1/\tau$…

We present a concise review of the recent development of relativistic hydrodynamics and its applications to heavy-ion collisions. Theoretical progress on the extended formulation of hydrodynamics towards out-of-equilibrium systems is…

This talk summarizes some of the theoretical issues currently most debated in the field of hot and dense QCD matter and ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions.

QCD is now a mature theory, and it is possible to begin to view its place in the conceptual universe of physics with appropriate perspective. There is a certain irony in the achievements of QCD. For the problems which initially drove its…

Since the start of the LHC heavy ion program, a multitude of rather different high transverse momentum (P_T) observables has become available to study the physics of the interaction of hard partons with a QCD medium. Similarly, multiple…

I review recent developments in the field of relativistic hydrodynamics and its application to the bulk dynamics in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy- Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In particular, I…

We discuss recent developments in the hydrodynamic description of strongly coupled conformal field theories using the AdS/CFT correspondence. In particular, we review aspects of the fluid-gravity correspondence which provides a map between…

We present the current status of hybrid approaches to describe heavy ion collisions and their future challenges and perspectives. First we present a hybrid model combining a Boltzmann transport model of hadronic degrees of freedom in the…

Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the generally accepted theory for the strong interactions, describes the interactions between quarks and gluons. The strongly interacting particles that are seen in nature are hadrons, which are composites of…

Even though quantum chromodynamics is a broken conformal theory, the AdS/CFT correspondence has led to important insights into the properties of QCD. For example, as shown by Polchinski and Strassler, dimensional counting rules for the…

Calculations using the AdS/CFT correspondence can be used to unveil the short-distance structure of a strongly coupled plasma, as it would be seen by a `hard probe'. The results of these calculations admit a natural physical interpretation…

I present the motivation for studying nuclear collisions at ultrarelativistic energies which is to map the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter under very extreme conditions. The relevant experimental efforts are overviewed and…

In this lecture we review recent progress in various aspects of non-equilibrium QFT with respect to relativistic heavy ion collisions. As a first and rather general study we summarize our (numerical) investigations for a dissipative quantum…

We investigate the large photon v2 puzzle and the two time scales of thermal and chemical equilibrium in heavy ion collisions. The two-time-scale picture has a weak effect on the transverse moemntum spectrum of direct photons, but a strong…

The dual holographic description has enjoyed many successes in explaining fundamental properties of the early stages of relativistic heavy ion collisions up to the formation of a minimal-viscosity quark-gluon fluid. However, there have been…

I review arguments for the existence of a critical point in the QCD phase diagram as a function of temperature and baryon chemical potential. I describe how heavy ion collision experiments at the SPS and RHIC can discover the tell-tale…