Lattice Field Theory and Hadronic Physics

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Quarks carry a color charge and nuclear matter is formed from thebinding of colored quarks mediated by gluons. Quantum Chromo-Dynamics(QCD) is the theory that describes the interaction of these colorcharges. Experiments have shown than quarks come in three colors butall nuclear matter is color neutral. Separation of nuclear matter intoquarks and gluons needs very large energies similar to what waspresent in the early universe. Since solving QCD with three colorshave proven to be very difficult and since qualitative properties donot depend on the number of colors, an attempt following 't Hooft ismade to solve QCD for a very large number of colors. We have alreadyshown that quarks form a colorless condensate and we have alsosucceeded in computing the properties of the lightest colorlessparticle - the pion. We will attempt to compute the masses of otherheavier colorless particles as part of this proposal. We will alsoattempt to study the effect of temperature thereby showing evidencefor the formation of nuclear matter from a primordial soup of quarksand gluons.The scientific methods involve analytical calculations and numericalcomputations. A graduate student and several undergraduate students atFIU will make significant contributions. Large scale computer clustersat national labs will be used for numerical computations and theresults obtained as part of this proposal will be presented atinternational conferences in nuclear and particle physics.