We present a Fisher–information–based sensitivity analysis of the Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model parameters using neutron star observables as macroscopic probes of dense QCD matter. Building upon the MUSES framework, we developed a workflow that integrates the CMF, Lepton, and QLIMR modules to generate cold, $\beta$-equilibrated equations of state by smoothly merging a CMF core with the SLy...
We investigate the equation of state (EoS) for hot and dense hadronic matter within an extended Chiral Mean Field (CMF) model framework that incorporates the interactions of thermally excited mesons, including both non-strange and strange species. In this approach, the in-medium masses of pseudoscalar and vector mesons are evaluated through the explicit chiral symmetry-breaking and...
Recent LHC results have demonstrated that small collision systems can exhibit collective behavior reminiscent of that observed in heavy-ion collisions, opening a new frontier for exploring the connection between nuclear structure and collective dynamics at ultrarelativistic energies. In this talk, we present the first measurements of multi-particle cumulants (up to eight-particle) for $v_2$...
Authors: Y. Zhou, J. Aichelin, C. Blume, E. Bratkovskaya, G. Coci, N. Herrmann, S. Gläßel, V. Kireyeu, Y. Leung, V. Voronyuk, I. Vassiliev, M. Winn, N. Xu, J. Zhao
The equation-of-state (EoS) at high baryon density is crucial for understanding the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions. The directed flow of protons and $\Lambda$ baryons has long been recognized as a sensitive...
Understanding hyperon-nucleon interactions is crucial for describing strange nuclear matter and for resolving the hyperon puzzle in neutron stars. Three-body forces are expected to play a key role in this context [1]. In this work, we report the measurement of the p-p-$\Lambda$ three-particle correlation functions in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=3 GeV. At this beam energy, the system...
We present a study of net-proton number fluctuations in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 7.7 - 200$ GeV using viscous hydrodynamic simulations. Proton and antiproton fluctuations are evaluated on the hydrodynamic freeze-out hypersurface via a Cooper–Frye procedure adapted to an interacting hadron resonance gas. Effects of limited experimental acceptance and global charge...
Forty years ago, Witten suggested that dark matter might consist of macroscopic droplets of strange quark matter, formed during a cosmological first-order phase transition. Although lattice QCD at small baryon chemical potential points to a smooth crossover, scenarios in which the early Universe still encounters first-order dynamics remain plausible. We revisit the conditions under which...
The properties of dense astrophysical objects, such as neutron stars, are governed by the equation of state of nuclear matter. At the extreme baryon densities reached in their cores, hyperons are expected to appear as energetically favorable degrees of freedom. Constraining hyperon–nucleon interactions is therefore essential for accurate astrophysical modeling. However, in the case of the...
We compute the full cosmic trajectories of the early Universe across the QCD phase diagram as the plasma cools from $T\simeq500\,$MeV to $30\,$MeV, assuming $\beta$-equilibrated matter.
The trajectories are obtained by simultaneously solving baryon-number, electric-charge, and lepton-asymmetry conservation, closed by a state-of-the-art lattice-QCD equation of state: a fourth-order Taylor...
Connecting neutron stars to heavy-ion collisions is essential for constraining the neutron star Equation of State and its interior structure. One such phenomenological tool is the symmetry energy expansion, which characterizes the energy difference between symmetric nuclear matter and pure neutron matter [1]. However, the usual expansion is ill-defined when strangeness is present [2]. We...
