SQM 2024

Preface

The 21^st International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM 2024)

The international conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter (SQM) took place from 3 to 7 June, 2024, in Strasbourg, France. SQM is one of the major conferences for the experimental and theoretical physicists studying the role of the strange and heavy-flavour quarks in the field of ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) physics and in astrophysical phenomena.

The conference is focusing on the following scientific topics:

• Strangeness and heavy-quark production in nuclear collisions and hadronic interactions
• Hadron resonances in the sQGP (strongly-interacting Quark-Gluon Plasma)
• Bulk matter phenomena associated with strange and other heavy quarks
• Chirality, vorticity and spin polarisation phenomena
• Strangeness in astrophysics
• QCD phase structure
• Collectivity in small systems
• Open questions and new developments

The 2024 edition marked the 21^st in the series and was held in France for the first time, following the 2022 edition in Pusan (Republic of South Korea) and the 2021 (online) edition co-organised by BNL and CERN. It was the first entirely “in-person” edition since the pandemic, succeeding the SQM 2019 edition in Bari (Italy).

This is the 21^st edition of the conference series following the previous SQM conferences as below:

• SQM 2022 Pusan, Republic of South Korea
• SQM 2021 New York, USA (Online)
• SQM 2019 Bari, Italy
• SQM 2017 Utrecht, The Netherlands
• SQM 2016 Berkeley, USA
• SQM 2015 Dubna, Russia
• SQM 2013 Birmingham, UK
• SQM 2011 Krakow, Poland
• SQM 2009 Busios, Brazil
• SQM 2008 Beijing, China
• SQM 2007 Levoča, Slovakia
• SQM 2006 Los Angeles, USA
• SQM 2004 Cap Town, South Africa
• SQM 2003 Duke, USA
• SQM 2001 Frankfurt, Germany
• SQM 2000 Berkeley, USA
• SQM 1998 Padova, Italy
• SQM 1997 Santorini, Greece
• SQM 1996 Budapest, Hungary
• SQM 1995 Tucson, USA
• Symposium on Strangeness and Quark Matter (1994) Crete, Greece
• Workshop on Strange Quark Matter in physics and astrophysics (1991) Aarhus, Denmark

The conference was organised primarily by researchers of the Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), faculty members and the Cellule Congrès of the University of Strasbourg as well as staff physicists from Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC) in Grenoble, from Institut de Physique des deux Infinis (IP2I) in Lyon and from Laboratoire de Physique des deux Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab) in Orsay. A total of 280 participants from 26 countries convened at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès in Strasbourg to discuss recent experimental and theoretical advancements during a week-long programme, which included social events such as the one held during the poster session and the conference dinner. For the 70 supported students, attendance started in the historical building of the Faculté de Physique et d’Ingénierie on Sunday 2 June, with lectures introducing the theoretical and experimental aspects of the field and given by senior experts: Auguste Besson, David Chinellato, Pol-Bernard Gossiaux and Jean-Yves Ollitrault.

The official opening, chaired by Berndt Müller, took place on Monday 3 June and featured addresses by Sandrine Courtin, director of IPHC, by Christelle Roy, director of the National Institute for nuclear and particle physics (IN2P3) of the French centre of scientific research (CNRS), by Rémi Barillon, vice-chancellor for research, doctoral studies and open science of the University of Strasbourg and by Olivier Becht, member of the French Parliament for the Upper Rhine and former Minister.

The conference featured a total of 42 plenary presentations with Monday’s sessions highlighting key experimental and theoretical findings and advancements. On Tuesday and Wednesday morning, 124 talks were presented across four parallel sessions, providing in-depth coverage of the main SQM topics. Additionally, 88 posters were displayed during a dedicated session on Tuesday afternoon. Plenary sessions resumed on Thursday morning and concluded on Friday afternoon with two comprehensive summary presentations.

During the award ceremony, JaeYoon Cho (Inha University) received the André Mischke Award for the best experimental talk, whereas Xin Wu (University of Science and Technology of China), Sarah Pucillo (Università di Torino) and Pooja (Indian Institute of Technology Goa) received prizes for the three best posters presented at the conference.

As conference chair, I sincerely appreciated the commitment of the LOC, the CCC and the IAC members whose efforts fostered a collegial atmosphere and played a crucial role in the success of SQM 2024. The next SQM will be hosted in 2026 by UCLA in the U.S.A. The next-to-next SQM will be hosted in Hefei in China in 2027, according to the decision of the IAC taken during the SQM 2024 edition.

Dec. 2024
Chair, Boris Hippolyte
(Université de Strasbourg)
On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee

Committees

Chair

International Advisory Committee (IAC)

Code of Conduct Committee (CCC)

Local Organizing Committee (LOC)

Special thanks

Special thanks to all members who helped and reviewed the papers submitted to these proceedings which were edited by Cvetan Cheshkov, Rachid Guernane and Antonin Maire, to the network and computing teams of IPHC for their expertise and great help as well as to Catherine Berger who supervised the graphic design for all the documents of the conference.

Sponsors