Nuclear physics

The structure of hadrons in and out of baryon-rich medium-nuclei and nuclear matter- is the principal research topic of the group. Because of severe nonperturbative effects, strong interactions at low energy remain, lattice calculations notwithstanding, intractable in terms of QCD. One is thus required to construct effective theories that model QCD. Chiral symmetry plays a key role in this endeavor, with a consequent accent on such chiral models as skyrmions, chiral bags and chiral perturbative schemes. Effective theories support topological solitons exhibiting a crucial role of topology in hadronic structure. Monopole-like and instanton-like configurations seem to figure importantly and merit to be investigated further in the context of strong interactions. While better understanding of intermediate-energy chiral theories remains an important part of the research interest, greater emphasis is put on the structure of hadronic matter under such extreme and high temperature as in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and in the early QCD phase transition-chiral phase transition/ confinement-deconfinement phase trasition-sa well as on possible Goldstone boson(e.q.) condensations. Such research overlaps closely over some activities of nuclear astrophysics where the phase structure of dense and hot mater plays a key role.