Probing our Understanding of Quark-Gluon matter

Coordinators: Aleksi Kurkela,Yen-Jie Lee and Bjoern Schenke

This conference will bring together theorists and experimentalists to deepen our understanding of the most phenomenological aspects of quark-gluon matter studied in various experimental setups. The conference will contain a critical assessment of the legacy of the RHIC experiment and a broad discussion on the status of the theoretical description of LHC data both at low and high momenta. Connections to high-energy physics will be explored with particular emphasis on establishing a coherent theoretical description of LHC data across collision systems. This will complement the theoretical developments that will be covered in the program and extend its reach to the experimental community, as is essential to the progress of the field. 

2026

Monday, Mar 30, 2026

  • Chair: Laura Havener (Yale) 08:50AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Lars Bildsten (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Berndt Mueller (Duke) Critical assessment of the status of the field of heavy ion physics
    • 09:45AM Chun Shen (Wayne State) Evidence for hydrodynamics in heavy ion collisions
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Barbara Jacak (UCB) Critical Assessment of the status of the heavy-ion field from an experimental perspective
    • 11:45AM Lijuan Ruan (BNL) Critical assessment of results with comparisons between STAR and PHENIX
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Peter Petreczky (BNL) 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Bruno Scheihing (KITP) Heavy quark transport for heavy flavor hadron and quarkonia production
    • 02:45PM Gianluca Usai (Univ. of Cagliari) Electromagnetic probes of heavy ion collisions
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Volodymyr Vovchenko (U. Houston) The search for the QCD Critical Point
    • 04:45PM Mateusz Ploskon (LBNL) New Talk
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Monday, Mar 30, 2026

  • Chair: Laura Havener (Yale) 08:50AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Lars Bildsten (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Berndt Mueller (Duke) Critical assessment of the status of the field of heavy ion physics
    • 09:45AM Chun Shen (Wayne State) Evidence for hydrodynamics in heavy ion collisions
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Barbara Jacak (UCB) Critical Assessment of the status of the heavy-ion field from an experimental perspective
    • 11:45AM Lijuan Ruan (BNL) Critical assessment of results with comparisons between STAR and PHENIX
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Peter Petreczky (BNL) 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Bruno Scheihing (KITP) Heavy quark transport for heavy flavor hadron and quarkonia production
    • 02:45PM Gianluca Usai (Univ. of Cagliari) Electromagnetic probes of heavy ion collisions
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Volodymyr Vovchenko (U. Houston) The search for the QCD Critical Point
    • 04:45PM Mateusz Ploskon (LBNL) New Talk
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Tuesday, Mar 31, 2026

  • Chair: Krishna Rajagopal (MIT) 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Zhoudunming Tu (BNL) Initial stages in heavy ion collisions and the EIC
    • 09:45AM Austin Baty (UIC) Collectivity in the smallest systems
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Farid Salazar Wong (Temple) Initial particle production in heavy ion collisions
    • 11:45AM Florian Lindenbauer (MIT) Thermalization
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Jean Francois Paquet (Vanderbilt) 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Dana Avramescu (Univ. of Jyvaskyla) Initial stage energy loss for jets and heavy flavor
    • 02:45PM Jing Wang (MIT) Collisions with O and Ne targets
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Jiangyong Jia (Stony Brook) Nuclear structure heavy-ion collisions
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Wednesday, Apr 01, 2026

  • Chair: Jiangyong Jia (Stony Brook) 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Gergely Endrodi (Eötvös Univ.) Latest developments in finite T Lattice QCD
    • 09:45AM Govert Nijs (CERN) Extracting the QCD EOS from experiment
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Bedangadas Mohanty (NISER) The RHIC Beam Energy Scan
    • 11:45AM Peter Petreczky (BNL) Heavy Flavor Theory Overview
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Aleksi Kurkela (Univ. of Stavanger) 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Jocelyn Read (Cal State Fullerton) Dense Matter in Neutron Stars
    • 02:45PM Tyler Gorda (Univ. Frankfurt) Neutron Stars and the connection to heavy ion physics
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 04:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Varun Vaidya (U. South Dakota) Theory of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions
    • 04:45PM Gian Michele Innocenti (MIT) Ultraperipheral Collisions
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Thursday, Apr 02, 2026

  • Chair: Yen Jie Lee (MIT) 09:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Raghav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli (Vanderbilt) Jet measurements and connections to hadronization
    • 09:45AM Yi Chen (Vanderbilt) Medium response to jet quenching
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 11:00AM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Laura Havener (Yale) Jet measurements in heavy ion collisions
    • 11:30AM Hannah Bossi (MIT) Energy-energy correlators across collision systems
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Bjoern Schenke (BNL) 02:00PM Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Krishna Rajagopal (MIT) Outlook for the field of heavy ion physics
  • 03:00PM CONFERENCE END-SHUTTLE TO BWSCI *Also available to SB Airport and SB Airbus, Goleta location. (See Registration Desk BEFORE THURSDAY to sign up.) Gurley Courtyard

     

2026

Friday, Apr 03, 2026

No talks scheduled.

2026

Saturday, Apr 04, 2026

No talks scheduled.

2026

Sunday, Apr 05, 2026

No talks scheduled.