Snowmass 2001
Working Group on QCD and Strong Interactions
| Brenna Flaugher | (Fermilab) | brenna@fnal.gov |
| Ed Kinney | (Colorado) | kinney@quentin.colorado.edu |
| Paul Mackenzie | (Fermilab) | mackenzie@fnal.gov |
| George Sterman | (Stony Brook) | sterman@insti.physics.sunysb.edu |
A wealth of strong interaction data and broad efforts in theory over the past decade have confirmed our basic pictures of QCD dynamics at long and short distances. Advances in the techniques of lattice simulations have opened the way to realistic computations of hadronic spectra and matrix elements. The past few years have seen corresponding progress in perturbative QCD, with two-loop calculations bringing one-percent accuracy into sight, and with resummation extending the reach of theory to a widening set of observables. These developments have brought to the fore a new set of challenges, associated with existing and forthcoming data, with the application and development of evolving theoretical tools, and with the analysis of hadronic final states in the context of searches for new physics. Meeting these challenges will require a continuing interplay between theory and experiment.
The coming decade will make great demands on our ability to analyze QCD, with richer data sets on hadronic and leptonic scattering at higher energy, and with ever more exotic decays involving light and heavy quarks. The search for new physics in hadronic environments will test our ability to interpret increasingly complex events and signals at high energy, and to compute fundamental hadronic properties and decay matrix elements from first principles. New eras of research within QCD are opening up, involving polarized and nuclear beams, and new vistas of computing power are under study. At the same time, the ``eternal" questions of QCD: confinement, chiral symmetry breaking and the strong CP problem remain as benchmarks for new methods in quantum field and string theory.
Our group will attempt to formulate the case for further experimental and theoretical studies of QCD in the coming years, the role of QCD at hadronic colliders, ways to promote the study of QCD for its own sake, and as an essential tool in the investigations of electroweak symmetry breaking, TeV-scale physics and the mysteries of flavor. For Run II at the Tevatron, we will look toward consensus on issues ranging from the treatment of the underlying event, to uncertainties in parton distribution functions. We will examine the experiments that comprise the most important tests and applications of lattice QCD, and will discuss how to extend lattice calculations to the precision required by experiment. We will discuss how best to coordinate particle and nuclear physics efforts in the widening arena in which they overlap, such as at RHIC, Hermes and JLab, and will review the interplay between perturbative, lattice and other nonperturbative approaches to QCD. Clearly, this is a large order!
We list below a number of ``topical subgroups", where specific subjects related to the overview will be studied at the meeting. In addition, we have listed a set of ``discussion sessions", which we hope will serve as a stimulus for further investigation, and which will contribute to the content of our eventual report. The lists as they now appear are quite fluid, may overlap. and are subject to change as suggestion and demand require. Our approach will be to emphasize dialogue, rather than presentation of seminar material. Further plans for our studies will appear here in the coming weeks.
Last modified 2001/06/15