Attractors and thermalization in nuclear collisions and cold quantum gases

22 Sept 2025, 08:15 → 26 Sept 2025, 19:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Renzo Leonardi (ECT*)

Jasmine Brewer (CERN), Jürgen Berges (Heidelberg University), Michal P. Heller (Ghent University), Michał Spaliński (National Centre for Nuclear Research), Tuomas Lappi (University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä/Fi)

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Understanding thermalization dynamics of QCD in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions at RHIC and LHC is a largely open question of fundamental importance. Current theoretical understanding is based on progress in simulating time evolution of non-Abelian gauge theories that occurred over the past 15 years. The emerging theoretical picture features prominently two attractor phenomena governing information loss about earlier stages of post-collision evolution of nuclear matter: nonthermal fixed points and hydrodynamic attractors. The first aim of the workshop is to decisively advance the topic of thermalization in ultrarelativistic collisions by discussing cutting edge ideas allowing to extend the attractor-based picture of thermalization beyond its current limitations. The second aim of the workshop is to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange of ideas between the communities of nonthermal fixed points, hydrodynamic attractors and cold quantum gases, which provided a platform to experimentally realize nonthermal fixed points and may realize hydrodynamic attractors in the future.

Speakers include

• Yi Yin The (Chinese University of Hong Kong - Shenzhen)

• Kirill Boguslavski (Technical University Vienna, Austria)

• Ines Aniceto (University of Southampton, UK)

• Aleksas Mazeliauskas (Heidelberg University, Germany)

• Zoran Hadzibabic (Cambridge University, UK) 

• Derek Teaney (Stony Brook University, USA)

• Li Yan (Fudan University, China) 

• Paul Romatschke (University of Colorado, USA)

• Jean-Paul Blaizot (CEA Saclay, France)

• Gabriel Denicol (Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brasil)

• Markus Oberthaler (Heidelberg University, Germany)

• Tilman Enss (Heidelberg University) 

• Thomas Gasenzer (Heidelberg University) 

• Sebastian Erne (TU Vienna)

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 Supporting institutions and projects

 

 

Monday 22 September

09:00 → 09:45 Registration of participants

09:45 → 10:00 ECT* Director's address

10:00 → 10:30 Opening and participants' introduction

10:30 → 11:00 Nonthermal fixed points: a theory perspective

Speaker: Kirill Boguslavski (TU Wien)

Boguslavski_ECT_workshop_2025_09.pdf

11:00 → 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 → 12:00 Hydrodynamic attractors: an overview

Speaker: Alexander Soloviev

ECT-attractor-overview.key

ECT-attractor-overview.key

ECT-attractor-overview.pdf

12:00 → 12:30 Experimental results on universal dynamics in spinor Bose condensates and the emergence of the Sine-Gordon model

Speaker: Markus Oberthaler

12:30 → 15:00 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

15:00 → 15:30 Hydrodynamic transport in ultracold atoms

Speaker: Tilman Enss

Trento2025.pdf

15:30 → 16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00 → 16:30 Hydrodynamic attractor in ultracold atoms

Speaker: Keisuke Fujii (Institute of Science Tokyo)

KF_2025_ECT_Submit.pdf

16:30 → 17:00 Early time hydrodynamic attractor in a nearly-unitary Fermi gas

Speaker: Clemens Werthmann (Ghent University)

trento_attractor_werthmann.pdf

17:00 → 17:30 Nonthermal fixed points beyond the transport paradigm

Speaker: Aleksandr Mikheev

mikheev_talk_trento.pdf

17:30 → 18:00 Kelvin waves in nonequilibrium universal dynamics of relativistic scalar field theories

Speaker: Viktoria Noel (Institute for Theoretical Physics, University Heidelberg)

V_Noel_Trento_talk.pdf

Tuesday 23 September

10:00 → 10:30 Analytic methods for uncovering attractors

Speaker: Ines Aniceto (University of Southampton)

20250923-Trento-Aniceto.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Hydrodynamic attractors in periodically driven systems

Speaker: Aleksas Mazeliauskas (Heidelberg University)

Mazeliauskas_Trento.pdf

11:00 → 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 → 12:00 Relaxation to Nonthermal Attractors: Prescaling and Hydrodynamics

Speaker: Thimo Preis (Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Heidelberg University)

Trento_ThimoPreis.pdf

12:00 → 12:30 Adiabatic Hydrodynamization: The Adiabatic Picture of Attractors

Speaker: Bruno Scheihing (Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California Santa Barbara)

ECT-Scheihing-Talk.pdf

12:30 → 15:00 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

15:00 → 15:30 Quasinormal modes of nonthermal fixed points

Speaker: Matisse De Lescluze (Ghent University)

QNMs_of_NTFPs.pdf

15:30 → 16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00 → 16:30 Quark production in the bottom-up thermalization

Speaker: Xiaojian Du (IGFAE)

Trento2025-XiaojianDu.pdf

16:30 → 17:00 Limiting attractors: new universality in heavy-ion collisions and jet quenching

Speaker: Florian Lindenbauer (MIT Center for Theoretical Physics - a Leinweber Institute)

talk_lindenbauer_trento_2025.pdf

17:00 → 17:30 Transport at Large N -- Unexpected New Results for Old Problems

Speaker: Paul Romatschke (TU Wien)

ECT-Sep25.pdf

Wednesday 24 September

10:00 → 10:30 Universal coarsening in homogeneous Bose gases

Speaker: Zoran Hadzibabic (University of Cambridge)

10:30 → 11:00 COFFEE BREAK

11:00 → 11:30 Far-from equilibrium 1D Bose gases - from Kibble-Zurek to NTFPs

Speaker: Sebastian Erne (Atominstitut, TU Wien)

2025_9_24 - Far-from equilibrium 1D bose gases - from KZ to NTFPs - Trento ECT_.pdf

11:30 → 12:00 Topology in far-from-equilibrium dynamics: Sine-Gordon-class universality

Speaker: Thomas Gasenzer (Heidelberg University, Germany)

Talk_Attractors_Trento_web.pdf

12:00 → 13:00 DISCUSSION: NONTHERMAL ATTRACTORS AND EXPERIMENTS

13:00 → 14:00 LUNCH BREAK

Thursday 25 September

10:00 → 10:30 Quantum thermalization of QCD matter by Schwinger model

Speaker: Li Yan

Yan_Trento_ECT.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Restoring causality in far-from-equilibrium fluids

Speaker: Lorenzo Gavassino (University of Cambridge)

GavassinoECTstar.pdf

11:00 → 11:30 COFFEE BREAK

11:30 → 12:00 Hydrodynamic attractors in simulations of heavy ion collisions

Speaker: Gabriel Silveira Denicol (Universidade Federal Fluminense)

Talk_Trento_2025_v2.pdf

12:00 → 12:30 Non-hydrodynamics from hidden symmetry

Speaker: Yi Yin

Non-hydro-symmetry_ECT_09_2025_YiYin_v2.pdf

12:30 → 13:00 Effective thermalization rates in kinetic theory

Speaker: Robbe Brants (Ghent University)

thermalization rates.pdf

13:00 → 15:00 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

15:00 → 15:30 Two Conjectures on Hydrodynamization Hierarchies in Diffusive Systems

Speaker: Navid Abbasi

15:30 → 16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00 → 16:30 Attractors near superfluid phase transition

Speaker: Toshali Mitra (ITP, University of Heidelberg)

Toshali_ATrento.pdf

16:30 → 17:00 Soft and hard probe with hydrodynamic attractor

Speaker: Xin An (NCBJ)

250925_ECT.pdf

17:00 → 18:00 DISCUSSION: HYDRODYNAMIC ATTRACTORS AND EXPERIMENTS

Friday 26 September

10:00 → 10:30 A tale of two sounds

Speaker: Jean-Paul Blaizot (IPhT CEA-CNRS Saclay)

ECT_2025.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 COFFEE BREAK

11:00 → 11:30 Stages of relaxation of an isolated Bose gas

Speaker: Martin Gazo (University of Cambridge)

trento_talk.pdf

11:30 → 12:00 Coarsening dynamics of the chiral phase transition in quench and Kibble-Zurek protocols

Speaker: Derek Teaney (Stony Brook University)

o4quench_v2.pdf

12:00 → 13:00 CLOSING DISCUSSION: DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

13:00 → 14:00 LUNCH BREAK AND END OF THE CONFERENCE