UK Physics & Astronomy Physics & Astronomy
Colloquium


Colloquium



3:30 PM, Friday, February 22, 2002


Room 155, Chem-Phys Building







Dr. Krishna Rajagopal


MIT





The Condensed Matter Physics of QCD





If you heat nuclei up (as in the big bang or in heavy ion collision experiments) or squeeze them (as within neutron stars) new phases of matter result. After a brief look at hot quark matter, usually called a quark-gluon plasma, I focus on the rather different physics of cold, dense, quark matter. Most physical properties of this stuff are governed by the nature of the BCS pairing therein. At high enough density, the result is a color superconductor that nevertheless turns out to behave like a transparent insulator if probed electromagnetically. At lower densities, quark matter may in a certain sense be crystalline. I end with speculations on consequences for the physics of compact stars.



*** Refreshments served at 3:15 PM ***


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Moshe Elitzur
moshe@pa.uky.edu



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On 23 Jan 2002, 15:36.