Online HF Seminar Series - 2026

1 Jan 2026, 08:00 → 31 Dec 2026, 22:00 US/Eastern

The online seminar series on “Heavy Flavor Probes of QCD Matter” covers various aspects of hot and cold QCD with a focus on heavy flavor probes.  This online seminar series is scheduled on every other Wednesday at  9:00am US Eastern Time. 

The seminar series is initiated by HEFTY Collaboration, a DOE funded theoretical collaboration in nuclear physics.

Organizers:  Xin Dong ([email protected]), Peter Petreczky ([email protected]), Ralf Rapp ([email protected]), Ramona Vogt ([email protected])

Wednesday 7 January

09:00 → 10:00 Quarkonia in quark-gluon plasmas: quantitative analysis of quantum vs semi-classical descriptions

Techniques borrowed from the theory of open quantum systems offer interesting perspectives on the behavior of heavy quark bound states in a quark-gluon plasma. After reminding the general context, and standard approximations, I shall focus on a quantitative analysis of quantum vs semi-classical descriptions, in the regime of the so-called quantum brownian motion, as presented recently in arXiv:2506.19194 [hep-ph].

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lx7uoQslKgi2K-SW7xNwqwbn2VTuBIP2/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Jean-Paul Blaizot (Saclay)

BNL_2026.pdf

Wednesday 21 January

09:00 → 10:00 Prospects for open charm and charmonium measurements at SPS energies

Open charm and charmonium production in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at SPS energies provide a unique probe of QCD matter in the high-baryochemical-potential region. Precise measurements of charm hadrons can shed light on charm quark interactions with the medium constituents and constrain the heavy-quark transport coefficients at temperatures slightly above the QGP pseudocritical temperature and in the hadronic phase emerging from the QGP hadronization, thus being complementary to the results obtained at RHIC and the LHC. Measurements of the yield of different charmonium states in heavy-ion collisions at different SPS energies compared to results in proton-nucleus collisions provides insight into the dissociation of quarkonia in the QGP and allow us to study the onset for deconfinement of quarks and gluons.
I will discuss the physics motivations for open charm and charmonium measurements at SPS energies, review the current results from previous and existing experiments in this energy domain, and present in detail the expected performance of the future NA60+/DiCE experiment for the reconstruction of hadronic decays of open charm mesons and baryons and for measurements of J/psi and psi(2S) states from their dimuon decays.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UZOkSQXTwQeJ1qHFADeqEY4rkJQlnPNS/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Francesco Prino (INFN Torino)

20260121_Prino.pdf

Wednesday 4 February

09:00 → 10:00 Charm degrees of freedom accross the chiral crossover

I will present the calculation of the generalised charm susceptibilities in (2+1)-flavor QCD done on the lattice at several lattice spacings. I will show that, below the chiral crossover, these susceptibilities are well described by the hadron resonance gas (HRG) model if charmed hadrons not listed in tables of the Particle Data Group are included. However, the HRG description abruptly breaks down just above the chiral crossover. To understand this, we use a model for the charm pressure in which it is expressed as the sum of partial pressures from charmed baryons, charmed mesons, and charm quarks. I will present continuum estimates of these partial pressures and findings which show that, while the partial pressures of charmed mesons and baryons drop below their respective HRG predictions, the charm quark pressure becomes non-zero above the chiral crossover.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bNKreQ0WVnJaih5aOIMhOyjvdScuqjjx/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Sipaz Sharma (Munich Technical U.)

HEFTY.pdf

Wednesday 4 March

09:00 → 10:00 Cold Number Matter Effects on Quarkonia Production

There are a number of cold nuclear matter effects that can modify the quarkonium cross sections in p+A relative to p+p collisions. These effects include nuclear modifications of the parton distributions, energy loss in cold matter, intrinsic heavy flavor production, and breakup of the heavy quark pair by nucleons (nuclear absorption) and produced particles (comovers). We introduce all of these effects and discuss their implications for past, present, and future studies of cold nuclear matter. The means of disentangling these effects are also discussed.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fVH6HzCVJ_baPhIGVA7PQyQQLkVcwx2e/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Ramona Vogt (LLNL/UC Davis)

HEFTY_seminar_RV.pdf

Wednesday 18 March

09:00 → 10:00 Recent Developments in Quarkonium Quantum Transport

Measuring quarkonium suppression is a primary method for characterizing the Quark-Gluon Plasma. This talk explores the evolution of these states using an open quantum system approach, which offers a first-principles derivation of quantum transport equations in a thermal environment. We present the latest developments in the QTRAJ simulation suite, specifically its extension beyond the small-dipole limit to capture more complex interaction dynamics. Additionally, we apply this formalism to the X(3872) resonance, providing a theoretical window into the nature of this enigmatic state through its behavior in heavy-ion collisions.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sNLxB4Awz-KjxfV6zoQVJfq3V4s_dBM0/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Miguel A. Escobedo (University of Barcelona)

hq_escobedo_202603.pdf

Wednesday 1 April

09:00 → 10:00 Heavy flavor transport and exotic hadron production in heavy-ion collisions

For heavy ion collisions at high energies, especially in the TeV beam energy region, the large number of initial hard scatterings help create a richly “doped” quark-gluon plasma that embeds an abundance of charm quarks/anti-quarks. This provides a uniquely “charming” environment for the studies of heavy flavor transport in the QGP as well as the formation mechanism of heavy flavor hadrons upon freeze-out. The first part of this talk will discuss the extraction of heavy quark diffusion coefficient from experimental observables like the nuclear modification factor and elliptic anisotropy by utilizing a modeling framework based on Langevin-transport with Gluon Radiation (LGR). A question of particular interest is the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient, for which we test a wide range of possibility and draw constraints by comparing relevant charm meson data with model results. We find that a relatively strong increase of diffusion coefficient from crossover temperature toward high temperature is preferred by data. In the second part of this talk, we discuss an emerging frontier for deciphering the intrinsic structures of heavy flavor exotic hadrons through their production in heavy-ion collisions where a partonic medium is present. The latest experimental measurements from the Large Hadron Collider show an intriguing evolution pattern of the χ_c1 (3872)-to-ψ(2S) yield ratio from proton-proton collisions with increasing multiplicities toward proton-lead and lead-lead collisions. We discuss the potential of distinguishing different exotic hadron configurations via heavy-ion measurements. We further propose a new mechanism of medium-assisted enhancement for the χ_c1 (3872) production due to its exotic nature and demonstrate how this helps describe the relevant data from small to large colliding systems, along with predictions that can be tested with a system-size-scan of exotic hadron production.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RKRjw4ajHmnviN9r4OZnzYp1XfILPrgX/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Jinfeng Liao (Indiana University)

LIAO_HF_Apr.pdf

Wednesday 15 April

09:00 → 10:00 Heavy mesons, baryons, and tetraquarks in the QCD medium

One of the defining features of Quantum Chromodynamics is confinement, which prevents isolated quarks and gluons from being observed. Instead, partons are bound within a rich spectrum of hadrons, which have various quark content, binding energy, and size. With precision vertexing, full particle ID, and a fast DAQ, the LHCb detector can measure an unprecedented range of conventional and exotic hadrons. I will discuss recent LHCb results on mesons, baryons, and tetraquarks that are sensitive to the mechanisms enforcing confinement. In particular, I will show how these mechanisms are affected by the hadronic environment and discuss our understanding of hadronization in the QCD medium.

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Matthew Durham (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Durham_HEFTY_15Apr26.pdf

Wednesday 29 April

09:00 → 10:00 HF Transport and Hadronization in Small and Large Nuclear Collision Systems

Ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions create a deconfined QCD medium, the quark–gluon plasma (QGP), whose properties can be accessed with probes produced at early times and interacting throughout the fireball lifetime. Heavy quarks (charm and bottom) fulfill this requirement because they are produced in initial hard scatterings and explore the full space–time evolution of the medium. Their in-medium interactions are typically soft, driving their dynamics toward a Brownian-motion regime that can be modeled with Fokker–Planck/Langevin transport. In this talk I will present a unified, multi-stage description of heavy flavor from pp to AA collisions, based on a transport approach coupled to hybrid hadronization via coalescence plus fragmentation. I will review the key observables constraining the coupling strength and possible thermalization, and emphasize the impact of heavy-flavor hadrochemistry, in particular the enhanced charm baryon-to-meson ratios observed in heavy-ion and high-multiplicity pp collisions. The same framework predicts sizable enhancements of strange and characteristic system-size dependence from small to large collision systems for multi-charmed baryons. We observe that multi-charmed baryons are highly discriminating for non-equilibrium charm distributions. Finally, I will discuss recent developments on novel observables, such as the transverse-momentum–differential radial-flow as a promising tool to simultaneously constrain transport and hadronization.

Zoom Recording: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13gd21f13PxGFZmX-7pKND_v6GC0aEOaa/view?usp=drive_link

Contact: [email protected]

Speaker: Salvatore Plumari (INFN Catania)

ONLINE_SEMINAR_SERIES_PLUMARI_29_APRIL_2026_2.pdf