Title: Strong interactions under extreme conditions

Speaker: Prof. Sayantan Sharma, IMSc, Chennai

Abstract: The strong interactions account for the origin of an overwhelming fraction of the visible matter in the universe. Strongly interacting matter described by quantum chromodynamics (QCD) has a very rich phase diagram in terms of temperature and net baryon-density. Much of it is still unknown, known mainly from model quantum field theories which have the same symmetries as QCD. Unraveling the phase diagram is one of the goals of theoretical physics as it accounts for the rich phenomena at myriad length scales--from tiny droplets formed in heavy-ion colliders as well as the core of neutron stars. Lattice QCD is one of the most practical tools which have given us the most reliable and first principles predictions about the QCD phase diagram. We will review what is now very well known and what challenges lie ahead of us.