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.

Tentative speakers include

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

• Kirill Boguslavski (Technical University Vienna, Austria)

• Jorge Noronha (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA)

• Ines Aniceto (University of Southampton, UK)

• Soeren Schlichting (Bielefeld University, Germany)

• Aleksas Mazeliauskas (Heidelberg University, Germany)

• Jörg Schmiedmayer (Atom Institut, Austria)

• 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)

• Aleksi Kurkela (University of Stavanger, Norway)

• 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

1 ECT* Director's address

2 Opening and participants' introduction

3 Nonthermal fixed points: a theory perspective

Speaker: Kirill Boguslavski (TU Wien)

11:00 COFFEE BREAK

4 TBA

Speaker: Alexander Soloviev

5 TBA

Speaker: Markus Oberthaler

12:30 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

6 TBA

Speaker: Tilman Enss

15:30 COFFEE BREAK

7 TBA

Speaker: Keisuke Fujii (Institute of Science Tokyo)

8 TBA

Speaker: Clemens Werthmann (Ghent University)

9 TBA

Speaker: Aleksandr Mikheev

10 Kelvin waves in nonequilibrium universal dynamics of relativistic scalar field theories

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

Tuesday 23 September

11 TBA

Speaker: Ines Aniceto (University of Southampton)

12 Hydrodynamic attractors in periodically driven systems

Speaker: Aleksas Mazeliauskas (Heidelberg University)

11:00 COFFEE BREAK

13 TBA

Speaker: Matisse De Lescluze (Ghent University)

14 TBA

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

12:30 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

15 TBA

Speaker: Gabriel Silveira Denicol (Universidade Federal Fluminense)

15:30 COFFEE BREAK

16 TBA

Speaker: Robbe Brants (Ghent University)

17 TBA

Speaker: Xiaojian Du (IGFAE)

18 TBA

Speaker: Florian Lindenbauer (TU Wien)

19 TBA

Speaker: Paul Romatschke (TU Wien)

Wednesday 24 September

20 TBA

Speaker: Zoran Hadzibabic (University of Cambridge)

10:30 COFFEE BREAK

21 TBA

Speaker: Sebastian Erne (Atominstitut, TU Wien)

22 TBA

Speaker: Thomas Gasenzer (Heidelberg University, Germany)

23 DISCUSSION: NONTHERMAL ATTRACTORS AND EXPERIMENTS

13:00 LUNCH BREAK

Thursday 25 September

24 Quantum thermalization of QCD matter by Schwinger model

Speaker: Li Yan

25 Restoring causality in far-from-equilibrium fluids

Speaker: Lorenzo Gavassino (University of Cambridge)

11:00 COFFEE BREAK

26 TBA

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

27 Building nonequilibrium effective field theories using hidden symmetries

Speaker: Yi Yin

12:30 LUNCH BREAK AND UNSTRUCTURED TIME

28 TBA

Speaker: Navid Abbasi

15:30 COFFEE BREAK

29 TBA

Speaker: Toshali Mitra (ITP, University of Heidelberg)

30 TBA

Speaker: Xin An (NCBJ)

31 DISCUSSION: HYDRODYNAMIC ATTRACTORS AND EXPERIMENTS

Friday 26 September

32 TBA

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

10:30 COFFEE BREAK

33 TBA

Speaker: Martin Gazo (University of Cambridge)

34 Coarsening dynamics of the chiral phase transition in quench and Kibble-Zurek protocols

Speaker: Derek Teaney (Stony Brook University)

35 CLOSING DISCUSSION: DIRECTIONS FOR THE FUTURE

13:00 LUNCH BREAK AND END OF THE CONFERENCE