The 11th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics will take place from August 26 - 30, 2024. Around 150 participants from all over the world will come together at the event center of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The event is organized by Prof. Evgeny Epelbaum and the Institute of Theoretical Physics II.
Chiral dynamics - what holds the atomic nucleus together inside?
The conference brings together theoreticians and experimental physicists working in the field of quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong interaction. The strong interaction is one of the four known fundamental forces in physics - it holds the elementary building blocks inside an atomic nucleus together. Its carrier particles, the gluons, bind the quarks that make up protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons in turn form the nucleus of every atom.
But how can we find out what exactly is going on inside the atomic nucleus? Researchers are particularly interested in these dynamics. An important property of the strong interaction is what is known as chiral symmetry. Similar to our right and left hands, quarks can occur in two "mirrored" forms(chira, Greek for "hand"). For the two lightest quarks, which make up protons and neutrons, "right-handed" and "left-handed" quarks behave almost independently of each other. This property is known as chiral symmetry. The aim of the conference is to gain a better understanding of the phenomena for which chiral symmetry plays a role and thus provide an insight into the center of the atomic nucleus.
Guest article by Nobel Prize winner David Gross
The Institute was able to win Prof. Dr. David J. Gross as a guest speaker. The physicist is Chancellor's Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics and former Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA. Gross is one of the leading minds in particle physics. Together with Prof. Dr. Frank Wilczek and Prof. Dr. David Politzer, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 for the discovery of asymptotic freedom. Asymptotic freedom describes the effect that the strong interaction between quarks becomes weaker the closer they are to each other. The physicist was thus able to describe the force acting between quarks mathematically for the first time - and thus co-founded the theory of quantum chromodynamics. His guest lecture on August 28 is a journey through the last fifty years of quantum chromodynamics.
Special plenary session on the past, present and future of quantum chromodynamics
Gross' lecture "Fifty Years of Quantum Chromodynamics" is one of three talks in the Special Plenary Session, which will take place on August 28 and will be of interest to a broad specialist audience. More information on the program and further details can be found on the conference website: The 11th International Workshop on Chiral Dynamics.
Contact:
Stephanie Hohmann
Ruhr University Bochum
Institute for Theoretical Physics II
Building NB 6 / 152
D-44780 Bochum, Germany
Phone: + 49 - 234 - 32 23 707
Fax: + 49 - 234 - 32 14 697