Johns Hopkins Workshop

There were important developments in the physics of heavy ions during the past few years. Both developments in the theory, notably, advances in non-perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)and in experiments, results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), now suggest very strongly that there exists a new phase of matter: the quark-gluon plasma. This fact is of tremendous importance both in our understanding of high energy nuclear phenomena on earth and also, it changes our thinking about compact heavy objects in the sky, such as neutron stars, black holes, etc. The talks given at the workshop explored various aspects of these developments both from the point of view of experimentalists as well as astrophysicists and cosmologists.

Editorial Board
Domokos Gabor (chairman), Kaplan David E., Kovesi-Domokos Susan, Sundrum Raman

Particle physics and cosmology today are at an exciting juncture. The last decade has resulted in the discovery of powerful theoretical mechanisms which have revolutionized our description of fundamental physics and addressed several of its most pressing questions. In the meantime, experiments and observations have reached an era of unprecedented precision and reach, which have resulted in wonderful discoveries ranging from neutrino masses, to the top quark, to the acceleration of the Universe. In the next decade, experiments with grand scope from the Tevatron, LHC and linear colliders, to WMAP, Planck and SNAP will confront the new ideas, and will likely throw up new surprises and questions. These theoretical and experimental developments are rapidly erasing the traditional boundaries between particle phenomenology beyond the Standard Model, string theory, cosmology and astrophysics. The time is ripe to capitalize on these developments by bringing together the leading thinkers at the confluence of these fields, speaking the lingua franca of effective field theory, to share ideas, viewpoints and techniques.

Editorial Board
Domokos Gabor (chairman), Kaplan David E., Kovesi-Domokos Susan, Sundrum Raman

The meeting covered modern developments in string theory, M-theory and gauge theories with special emphasis on their symmetries.

Editorial Board
Brink Lars, Domokos Gabor, Kovesi-Domokos Susan (chairman), Marnelius Robert

The talks presented gave an overview of the current state of the physics of high energy reactions, both from the theoretical and experimental points of view. Special emphasis is on the physics of strong interaction at high energies in the non-perturbative regime and on the link between accelerator based physics and the high energy data recorded by cosmic ray experiments.

Editorial Board
Domokos Gabor (chairman), Kovesi-Domokos Susan, Nachtmann Otto