Duke Physics

The science of hard probes of QCD matter is in a stage of rapid development. While volumes of data continue to roll in from RHIC, the planned 12 GeV upgrade at JLab and upcoming experiments at the LHC (and the future EIC) are destined to make hard probes the leading tool in the study of extended systems of QCD matter. The most practical form of the theory of hard probes which encompasses a wide variety of measurements such as in-medium modification of jet structure, heavy-quark propagation in dense matter as well as various electromagnetic probes has, to date, not been rigorously established: there currently exist 4 different schemes incorporating a variety of different approximations regarding the various scales involved.

Complementary to these activities has been the development of a variety of effective field theories which aim to provide a systematic approach to the description of hard QCD phenomena in vacuum which involve a hierarchy of scales, such as heavy-quark effective theory (HQET), Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) etc. Such effective theories provide a systematic approach to the treatment of hard QCD phenomena in vacuum. The incorporation of a medium within such theories will require new extensions of these established approaches, with the medium introducing a new set of scales and requiring new power counting schemes. The derivation of an effective Lagrangian for the propagation of hard probes in dense matter will facilitate the systematic and comprehensive understanding of many phenomena in this rapidly expanding field.

With this aim in mind, a workshop entitled "Effective Probes of QCD Matter" is being organized at Duke from June 25-27. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together experts from the effective field theory, jet physics and heavy ion physics communities to discuss problems of mutual interest, especially the problem of jet propagation through nuclear matter and related topics. We expect to have, at most, 2-3 one hour seminars per day, allowing for plenty of informal discussion.