Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Dr. Andrew Hanlon
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- Open to the public
Dr. Andrew Hanlon, Brookhaven National Laboratoy, Title: The Nature of Strongly Interacting Matter: Connecting Theory to Experiment
Abstract: Theory and experiment go in tandem. Although experiment gives us an incredible window into the vast structure of strongly interacting matter, theory provides us with a much-needed understanding to build a wider view of this rich phenomena. It is well-accepted that quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the correct theory of the strong nuclear force. Despite this, there remain various challenges in using QCD directly. Fortunately, there exists a numerical method, lattice QCD, which is a systematically-improvable first-principles approach to performing calculations in QCD. This approach can be used in combination with effective field theory, among other tools, to make connections to experiment. The past decade has seen a significant maturity in these methods to address several puzzles in QCD. In this talk, I will show how lattice QCD can be used to make progress towards resolving open problems — e.g. through calculations of baryon resonances, two-baryon interactions, and three-body forces — and therefore increase our understanding of how the complex nature of strongly interacting matter arises from QCD.