Abstract: The 14th International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM2009) was held in Brazil from 27 September to 2 October 2009 at Hotel Atlântico, Buzios, Rio de Janeiro. The conference was jointly organized by Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Fisicas, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Universidade Estadual Paulista and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Over 120 scientists from Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and the USA gathered at the meeting to discuss the physics of hot and dense matter through the signals of strangeness and also the behavior of heavy quarks. The topics covered were strange and heavy quark production in nuclear collisions, strange and heavy quark production in elementary processes, bulk matter phenomena associated with strange and heavy quarks, and strangeness in astrophysics. In view of the LHC era and many other upcoming new machines, together with recent theoretical developments, sessions focused on `New developments and new facilities' and 'Open questions' were also included. A stimulating round-table discussion on 'Physics opportunities in the next decade in the view of strangeness and heavy flavor in matter' was chaired in a relaxed atmosphere by Grazyna Odyniec and conducted by P Braun-Munzinger, W Florkowski, K Redlich, K Safařik and H Stocker, We thank these colleagues for pointing out to young participants new physics directions to be pursued. We also thank J Dunlop and K Redlich for excellent introductory lectures given on the Sunday evening pre-conference session. In spite of the not-so-helpful weather, the beauty and charm of the town of Buzios helped to make the meeting successful. Nevertheless, the most important contributions were the excellent talks, whose contents are part of these proceedings, given by participants who often came from far away. (One presentation by the NA57 Collaboration is not included in these proceedings because it was recently published in this journal (2010 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 37 045105) and may be accessed online. Other important contributions came from the unsung heroes who supported the organization of the meeting, to whom we would like to express our gratitude, in the name of the local organizing committee. In particular, the assistance from David Chinellato, Bruno Mintz, Philipe Mota, Leticia Palhares and Rafael de Souza is deeply acknowledged. We also wish to thank Cristina Coelho, Ana Lucia Moraes and Zelia Quadros for secretarial work, and the company META Events for administrative help. Last, but not least, we deeply acknowledge the editorial team of Journal of Physics G for their efficient and excellent work. The organization of the event was supported by CNPq, FAPERJ, PRONEX, RENAFAE/CBPF, Banco do Brasil, FAPESP and IOP Publishing.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-08-02
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 2
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot