Krzysztof Redlich & David Blaschke
Matter under Extreme Conditions
In the first part of the seminar we present the research directions of the Division of Theoretical Particle Physics that is devoted to investigations of matter under extreme conditions and their applications to the phenomenology of QCD phase transformations in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions and in the Astrophysics of compact stars. The main results and achievements obtained within the past 10 years are recapitulated. The second part of the seminar we devote to the discussion of the QCD phase diagram at low temperatures, high baryon densities and large isospin asymmetries that are characteristic for matter probed in neutron stars, their mergers and supernova explosions of massive supergiant stars. The modern gravitational-wave observations of merger events by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration allow new insights about the limits for masses and radii of compact stars which can be translated to new constraints on the equation of state. The investigation of the relationships between phase transitions in the equation of state and the astrophysical phenomena involving (proto-)neutron stars are subject to three recently obtained NCN projects that are under way in the Division.