ICTS

Understanding quantum gauge theories is one of the remarkable challenges of the millennium. In particular, the phenomenon of confinement in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is regarded as one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in physics.  A fantastic opportunity to combine our theoretical understanding with experiments has emerged from the recent heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and CERN, which have reported a plasma of deconfined coloured degrees of freedom called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). However it is not yet understood how such a near-thermal plasma is formed within a remarkably short time scale under such non-equilibrium conditions.  The microscopic processes which lead to thermalisation or rather hydrodynamisation of the QGP and eventually to hadronisation, could hold the key to our understanding of the inner workings of gauge theories. The study of non-equilibrium phenomena in QCD at extreme temperatures and densities along with their perplexing complexities has thus emerged as a nascent area of research, which will oversee many breakthroughs in the coming years. In this workshop, we will review the current state-of-the art theoretical tools of non-equilibrium quantum field theories in general and explore what needs to be done to address some of the open questions in the context of thermalization of the strongly interacting QCD matter.

Eligibility criteria: Any doctoral/postdoctoral researcher or faculty member from a research institute or university working in the hep-th /hep-lat/hep-ph/nucl-th areas can apply. Preference will be given to those who are working on the fields related to the theme of the conference.