Theoretical Physics Colloquium by Prof. Ralf Rapp from Texas A&M University.
This presentation was held live on December 14, 2022 as part of the theoretical physics colloquium series hosted by Prof. Igor Shovkovy at the Arizona State University. The series features high-quality interactive presentations on current advances in theoretical physics by active researchers in the field of theoretical physics.
Abstract for this presentation:
The properties of hadrons in hot and/or dense matter are intimately related to fundamental phenomena of the strong interaction. They encode the spectral and transport properties of the medium, are essential ingredients to its equation of state, and can illuminate the realization of phase transitions in heavy-ion collision experiments. In this talk, we will focus on the light vector mesons, whose dilepton decays are the only known observables that provide direct information on in-medium spectral functions. We discuss hadronic many-body theory calculations which, with empirical constraints on the effective interactions, allow to obtain rho and omega spectral functions in medium. We present applications to photo-production and -absorption experiments off nuclei before turning to dilepton production in heavy-ion collisions, from GeV to TeV energies. The implications of these studies for the restoration of chiral symmetry in QCD matter, its change in degrees of freedom, and the temperatures and lifetimes of the produced fireballs, will be addressed.