Nearly Perfect Liquids: From quark-gluon plasma to ultra-cold atoms

Dates: April 6-8, 2008

Venue: Research Triangle, North Carolina, USA

Organizing Committee: S. A. Bass, T. Mehen, B. Müller, T. Schäfer, J. E. Thomas

The Workshop will attempt a synthesis between novel physical relationships among the hottest matter (quark matter at more than 2 trillion degrees Kelvin) and the coldest matter (cooled atoms at a few billionth degree Kelvin) produced in the laboratory, new insight gained from superstring theory, which makes it possible to infer the properties of certain thermal systems from the physics of black holes in five or more dimensions, and recent progress in the many-body theory of strongly coupled systems.

The Workshop aims at advancing our knowledge of the physics of perfect or nearly perfect liquids that have the ability to flow almost without friction. It has recently been recognized that the ability of fluids to flow frictionless is limited by fundamental quantum effects; but the precise form and the absolute nature of this limitation is a conjecture. All material substances known until recently were far away from the conjectured universal bound; only during the past three years has matter (quark matter and ultra-cold atoms) been discovered and studied that approaches it. It is not fully understood whether a common mechanism is at work in all instances or whether there are several distinct paths leading to perfect fluidity. While superstring theory has furnished a tractable theoretical model of such a fluid, it remains unclear how it relates to the two materials discovered in the laboratory.

By bringing experts in the different areas together for an intense exchange of ideas, the Workshop will help to develop new ideas for answers to these wide-ranging questions at a forefront area in the physical sciences. Attendance of the Workshop is limited to about 50 participants.

For more details and to register, please, visit the Workshop Website.