On the morning of October 15, 2025, the third IOPP Colloquium was successfully held at the Institute of Particle Physics (IOPP) of Central China Normal University (CCNU). Prof. Jan Pawlowski from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Heidelberg University, Germany, presented an inspiring talk titled "QCD under Extreme Conditions" to faculty and students of IOPP.

Prof. Pawlowski's talk began with the fundamental theories of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), systematically explaining the characteristics of QCD at different energy scales. He pointed out that at high-energy, QCD manifests as a weakly interacting theory of quarks and gluons, while under low-energy scale, it enters a strongly correlated regime exhibiting chiral symmetry breaking and color confinement. The lecture highlighted several cutting-edge research achievements: revealing the mass generation process below the 350MeV energy scale through quark condensate, providing crucial insights into QCD's low-energy behavior; exploring the search for the Critical End Point (CEP) in the QCD phase diagram, particularly the innovative  "Moat regime" concept in phase structure; and analyzing how to capture the "ripple effects" of the critical point through baryon number fluctuations in heavy-ion collision experiments, demonstrating the deep integration of theory and experiment.

During the discussion session, Prof. Pawlowski engaged in in-depth exchange with PhD students from IOPP on topics including the QCD phase diagram and critical point detection.  He particularly emphasized that "studying QCD under extreme conditions through heavy-ion collision experiments is an inverse problem that requires close collaboration between theory and experiment."

The IOPP Colloquium is a series of academic events organized by the Institute of Particle Physics, designed to provide faculty and students with popular science insights and academic inspiration while fostering a vibrant research and collaborative environment. This lecture, rich in content and profound in insights, offered attendees a valuable learning opportunity and further reinforced IOPP's academic vision of "international collaboration and interdisciplinary research."

Professor Xin-nian Wang, Director of C3NT, presented Professor Jan Pawlowski with 

the 3rd IOPP Colloquium Commemorative plaque

Prof. Jan Pawlowski, currently at Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Heidelberg, obtained his PhDin 1994 at the University of Heidelberg, He did his postdoctoralwork at Friedrich Schiller University JenaStudies, Dublin (lreland) from 2000-2006. He was a(Germany)from 1995-1997 and Dublin Institute for AdvancedResearch Assistant and Lecturer at the lnstitute of [heoretical Physics, FAU Erlangen and a postdoc at Universitof Tubingen (German)in 2000-2004. He was the Research GroupLeader at the Institute for Theoretical PhysicsDivision of EMMI in Heidelberg andHeidelberg University in 2004-2014. He was also the Coordinator of Theorya PI within the Collaborative Research Center (ISOOUANT) at the University of Heidelberg.

Group Photo of some PhD students attending the 3rd IOPP Colloquium

Correspondent: Xiangyu Shui, Xin-Nian Wang
Proof-reader: Yunjie Zhao