Research
Strongly coupled matter in heavy-ion collisions and neutron stars
How the properties of the quark–gluon plasma and of dense matter in neutron-star cores follow from strong interactions. I use approaches from relativistic mean-field and chiral quark models with correlations beyond mean field to self-consistent diagrammatic calculations anchored to lattice QCD.
Strongly coupled quark matter: self-consistent T-matrix approach
With R. Rapp (Texas A&M University) I developed the first real-frequency, self-consistent T-matrix calculation of strongly coupled quark matter at large density. The parton-based description of the quark–gluon plasma is calibrated at μB = 0 against lattice QCD, up to the sixth-order baryon-number susceptibility χB(6), and extended to high density without retuning.
The result: if deconfined matter exists in neutron-star cores, it forms a strongly coupled diquark liquid. Large collisional widths persist at high density and push color superconductivity to temperatures about twenty times lower than quasiparticle estimates. The calculation runs on a GPU implementation up to 104 times faster than CPU codes.
Relativistic mean-field models of neutron-star matter
During my PhD with D. N. Voskresensky (MEPhI, JINR) I developed relativistic mean-field models with hadron masses and couplings scaled by the scalar field, which resolve the hyperon puzzle. With these models I studied Landau parameters of quasiparticle interactions, neutron-star cooling, Δ resonances and charged ρ-meson condensation, using heavy-ion data as constraints.
As a fellow of the NSF Focused Research Hub “Nuclear Physics from Multi-Messenger Mergers” (NP3M), I work on relativistic mean-field models with density- and isospin-density-dependent couplings, chiral mean-field models with kaon condensation, and Bayesian analyses of the equation of state with neutron-star observables.
Selected papers
Solution of the hyperon puzzle within a relativistic mean-field modelPhys. Lett. B 748, 369 (2015) Making a soft relativistic mean-field equation of state stiffer at high density
Phys. Rev. C 92, 052801 (2015) S-wave kaon condensation in neutron-star matter within a chiral model framework with dynamical meson masses
arXiv:2603.22164 Relativistic mean-field model with density- and isospin-density-dependent couplings
Phys. Rev. D 113, 123049 (2026)
Hybrid stars and the hadron–quark transition
In collaboration with D. Blaschke (University of Wrocław) I studied hadron–quark hybrid stars, including pasta phases in the mixed phase and the robustness of third-family solutions of compact stars against mixed-phase effects.
Mesonic correlations beyond mean field
After my PhD I worked on the thermodynamic contribution of mesons in the Beth–Uhlenbeck approach within the (P)NJL model, and on the effect of off-shell (Landau-damping) correlations on the equation of state of hot matter across the chiral transition, including the pion contribution to the chiral condensate.
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