The 2015 ECT* Doctoral Training Program is devoted to computational approaches to contemporary key issues in nuclear physics. They encompass the analysis of all forms of strongly interacting matter, including the  structure of nucleons, the interactions among nucleons, the spectrum and structure of nuclei, and dense matter in nuclear astrophysics. From an experimental viewpoint, existing and planned facilities will probe the phases of matter with increased accuracy, and will give access to exotic regions of the nuclear chart. Computational studies are essential to address the key questions raised by these experimental programmes and establish a link of nuclear properties with Quantum Chromodynamics. From a theory viewpoint, there is a growing effort to replace nuclear phenomenological modeling with a well founded ab initio approach, while, at the same time, studies of cold nuclear physics are emerging as a fast evolving, central field of lattice QCD. It seems then timely to cover different computational approaches to nuclear physics in a systematic way.

The aim of the Doctoral Program is to provide the students with a common background in lattice QCD and of ab-initio many-body methods rooted in QCD, constrasting and comparing strenghts and weaknesses of different strategies. Interdisciplinary aspects will be discussed, highlighting the many research opportunities offered by computational physics at the dawn of exascale computing.

Students will have ample opportunity to interact with the lecturers outside the formal lecture period and in addition ECT* staff will be on hand to assist in tutorials and problem sessions. Students will have access to the computing facilities of ECT* and will be given the time and opportunity to continue working on their own Ph.D. project. The program will extend over six weeks in the spring of 2015. It is aimed at students who are in the process of obtaining a Ph.D. in an area related to the theme of the DTP. Enquiries can be addressed to: ECT* staff Serena degli Avancini ( serenada@ectstar.eu ) and for scientific matters to Maria Paola Lombardo ( lombardo@lnf.infn.it ).

How to apply DTP