July 21 2026 (in-person)

Volodymyr Y. Vovchenko ( University of Houston)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228 

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Volker Koch

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: Extracting baryon number susceptibilities at finite density from heavy-ion collisions

Abstract:  Exploring the QCD phase diagram at finite baryon density and searching for the QCD critical point remain major goals of nuclear physics. I will first discuss recent constraints obtained from the constant entropy contours method, recently extended to a four-dimensional thermodynamic parameter space. These results place the candidate critical region near the chemical freeze-out in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions.

I will then present an extended hydrodynamic framework for describing proton-number cumulants in heavy-ion collisions. Augmented with a maximum-entropy freeze-out prescription and a generalized subensemble acceptance method, the framework relates experimentally measured proton cumulants to equilibrium baryon-number susceptibilities while consistently incorporating the equation of state, kinematic acceptance, and global baryon number conservation.

A Bayesian analysis of experimental fluctuation measurements then enables the direct extraction of baryon-number susceptibilities from heavy-ion collision data. I will discuss the inferred susceptibilities in comparison with a lattice-QCD-based equation of state and examine their implications for the possible existence and location of the QCD critical point.

July 22 2026 (in-person)

Archana Radhakrishnan (IISc, Bengaluru)

Location: Room 328, Birge Hall, UC Berkeley Campus MAP 

Time: 3:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Felipe Ortega-Gama

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: Precise determination of low-lying charmed baryon spectrum

Abstract:  With the recent LHCb observation of the $\Omega_{cc}$, all three ground-state doubly charmed-light baryons have now been observed, opening a new era of precision studies of QCD in the heavy-quark sector. We calculate the ground state spectra of singly- and doubly-charmed baryons on Nf=2+1 ensembles generated by the Coordinated Lattice Simulations (CLS) effort with non-perturbatively improved Wilson fermions. The baryon masses are calculated along three trajectories in the plane spanned by the light and strange quark masses, two of which intersect close to the physical point, and a third one approaching the SU(3) chiral limit. The pion mass ranges from 420 MeV down to 130 MeV. The continuum limit is taken at several lattice spacings, allowing for a controlled continuum extrapolation, while spatial volumes are kept large enough to suppress finite-size effects. The ground-state masses are extracted and compared with experimental measurements and previous lattice calculations. 

July 27 2026 (in-person)

Ivan Vitev (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228 

Time: 2:30pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Zhenyu Ye

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: In-medium QCD dynamics and new developments in heavy ion collisions and for the Electron-Ion Collider

Abstract:  In this talk I will focus on two recent research topics relevant to the current and future QCD efforts in the US and abroad.

• First, I will discuss signatures of QGP formation in small collision systems. Results from light and heavy meson production will be complemented with a first-principles analysis of the scale evolution of the two-point energy-energy correlator (EEC) for quark and gluon jets propagating through QCD matter. Predictions for EEC measurements in p–Pb collisions and offer projections for small systems, such as O-O collisions, will be presented.

• Second, I will show results for Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) in reactions with nuclei. The study focuses on nuclear-enhanced power corrections in DVCS in e+A reactions, extending techniques developed for inclusive deep inelastic scattering to exclusive processes. Implications for three-dimensional imaging of nuclei at future facilities such as the Electron–Ion Collider will be presented.

• Time permitting, I will touch upon the question of quarkonium production. In particular, the  refactorization of long-distance matrix elements in pNRQCD and vNRQCD will be discussed, and I will show how recent progress for the collinear case can be extended to the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) formalism. 

August 11 2026 (in-person)

Giovanni Vecil (University of Trieste)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228 

Time: 4:000pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Zhenyu Ye

[Slide]  [Youtube]

Title: The ALICE 3 Inner Tracker Middle Layers: development of aluminium Flexible Printed Circuits for MAPS sensor modules

Abstract:  ALICE 3 is the next-generation detector for the ALICE experiment at CERN, planned for installation during the LHC Long Shutdown 4 (2034-2035). This contribution focuses on the design and development of the Middle Layers of the ALICE 3 Inner Tracker, comprising five 1.3 m-long barrels at radii between 70 mm and 300 mm, for a total area of about 6 m2, which is covered with reticlesize Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). Their proximity to the interaction point results in high particle hit rates, requiring each sensor to transmit data at a rate of about 1 Gbit/s. At the same time, achieving the desired tracking performance for low-momentum particles constrains the material budget of each layer to below 0.5% X0. These constraints demand extensive R&D across all aspects of detector construction. In particular, a more detailed insight is provided here into the development of low-material-budget solutions for sensor modules based on aluminium Flexible Printed Circuits (FPCs) and their integration with detector services for power distribution and high-speed data transmission over metre-scale distances. The signal integrity studies involve simulations and measurements of the impedance variations along the transmission lines and of scattering parameters. In this way, the FPC design is optimised to be compatible with the requirements posed by the receiver technology employed, as quantified by eye-diagram characteristics and bit-error rate (BER) performance.

[postponed]

Prof. Jen-Chieh Peng  (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Location: Swiatecki Lounge B70 annex - 228

Time: 4:00pm Pacific Time

ZOOM for those who are unable to come in-person: LINK

Host: Keh-Fei Liu

Title: Evolution of Helicity Property of Relic Neutrinos and Implications 

on Their Detection

Abstract: Neutrinos in the early Universe decoupled essentially in helicity eigenstates.

As they propagate through the Universe, their helicities could be modified via

two effects. First, neutrinos with a finite magnetic moment would rotate their

spins with respect to their momenta as they encounter cosmic magnetic fields,

modifying their helicities. Second, the bending of neutrino's spin by a

gravitational field lags the bending of its momentum, again modifying its helicity. 

We study both effects and investigate the implications of the

helicity modification on the detection of relic neutrinos using the Inverse

Tritium Beta Decay (ITBD) reaction. We find that the ITBD rate depends

sensitively on the neutrino mass hierarchy and on the Dirac or Majorana nature

of the neutrinos. This talk is based on several papers in collaboration with 

Gordon Baym.