Strong and Electro-Weak Matter 2026

Session

Quantum Fields in and out of Equilibrium Contributions 2

18 Aug 2026, 16:30

F4050 (4th floor) (University of Helsinki Main Building)

23. Far from equilibrium hydrodynamics of nonthermal fixed points

Michal Heller

18/08/2026, 16:30

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (30min)

Over the past decade, relativistic hydrodynamics has been pushed into increasingly extreme regimes—from hydrodynamic attractors in theory to small-system dynamics at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and Large Hadron Collider. Yet these approaches ultimately remain anchored to local thermal equilibrium. In this talk, based on 2504.18754 with Berges, Denicol, and Preis, I present a fundamentally...

63. Attractodynamics

Rachel Steinhorst (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

18/08/2026, 17:00

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (15min)

Attractors are a generic feature of far-from-equilibrium systems in which much of the memory of a system’s initial condition is lost long before local thermal equilibration. There has been recent interest in leveraging the existence of attractors to extend hydrodynamic descriptions to earlier times in the formation of QGP, largely focused on isotropic attractors. However, highly anisotropic...

106. Far-from-equilibrium QFT from a symmetry perspective

Xin An (Ghent University)

18/08/2026, 17:15

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (15min)

Contemporary understanding of thermalization in quantum field theory (QFT) stems largely from understanding properties of transient excitations of equilibria. These nonhydrodynamic excitations are known to structurally differ between weakly- and strongly-coupled QFTs with no known results at intermediate values of the interaction strength. We demonstrate that all the known behaviors of...

13. The E in SEWM: extremely high-energy bremsstrahlung in ordinary matter

Peter Arnold (University of Virginia)

18/08/2026, 17:30

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (30min)

Ultra-relativistic electrons passing through ordinary matter initiate electromagnetic showers that evolve through bremsstrahlung and pair production. At very high energy, the quantum mechanical duration of bremsstrahlung becomes longer than the mean free time to elastically scatter from the medium, leading to a significant suppression known as the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. The...

82. Non-equilibrium particle production in the early universe

Matthias Carosi

18/08/2026, 18:00

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (15min)

The out-of-equilibrium evolution of the early universe plays a central role in addressing some of the most pressing outstanding puzzles of particle physics, such as the matter-antimatter asymmetry and the production of dark matter. A consistent description of the non-equilibrium dynamics of the system requires systematically incorporating quantum and thermal effects, which can be achieved via...

95. Dynamics of nucleation in first-order phase transitions

Andrey Shkerin

18/08/2026, 18:15

Quantum fields in and out of equilibrium and thermalisation

talk (15min)

I will discuss dynamical effects during critical bubble nucleation in thermal first-order phase transitions. These effects arise due to lack of local thermal equilibrium and affect the parameters of the transition including the nucleation rate. I will present a general method of calculating the thermal nucleation rate that accounts both for statistical and dynamical effects. I will also...