Hosted by: Chun Shen

QCD at large, but not asymptotically large, baryon density presents an enormous theoretical challenge because first-principle calculations are nearly impossible. Phenomenologically, dense QCD is of great interest for the interior of neutron stars, in particular after the recent detection of gravitational waves from neutron star mergers. I will discuss a holographic approach to dense matter, making use of the Sakai-Sugimoto model, which can account for both nuclear matter and quark matter and the transition between them. In particular, nucleons are implemented as instantons in the bulk, and I will discuss certain approximations for many-nucleon matter based on the flat-space instanton solution and present the resulting phase diagrams.