Md Nasim
IISER, Berhampur
Md Nasim is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Berhampur. He received his PhD in 2014 from the National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), Bhubaneswar. His research interest is the physics of strongly interacting matter created in heavy-ion collisions. He was elected as an Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2021.
Session 1D: Inaugural Lectures by Fellows/Associates
Mitali Mukerji
Heavy-Ion collisions: A window into the QCD phase structure
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the fundamental theory that describes how the smallest building blocks of matter—quarks and gluons—interact. Under normal conditions, these particles are tightly confined within protons, neutrons, and other hadrons. However, at extremely high temperatures or densities, QCD predicts that quarks and gluons can become free, creating a new state of matter known as the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Relativistic heavy-ion collisions offer a powerful way to recreate and study this extraordinary state in the laboratory. By varying the energy of these collisions, experiments can explore different regions of the QCD phase diagram, which maps how strongly interacting matter behaves under extreme conditions. In this talk, I will present recent results from the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). We will focus on important observables such as collective flow, strangeness enhancement, and jet quenching, examining how these signals change with collision energy. By comparing these experimental findings with theoretical models, we aim to deepen our understanding of the various phases of matter predicted by QCD.