J. J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award in Theoretical Particle Physics: A Charcuterie Platter of QCD Matter

In this talk, I describe my PhD thesis research which is motivated by two fundamental questions in theoretical physics at the smallest and largest scales in the universe: First, at the microscopic scale, how does a proton form from quarks and gluons? Second, at the cosmic scale, what particle makes up dark matter? I provide significant insights into both of these questions by examining various aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) within the framework of effective field theory (EFT). Specifically, my thesis focuses on the study of the real-time dynamics of hadronization and the strong CP problem, and advances our understanding of the observed phenomenology, nonperturbative field theory structure, and the underlying symmetry properties of QCD. I detail my contributions to these topics by investigating (a) the hadronization process of heavy quarks, (b) the nonperturbative structure of energy correlators, and (c) the complexity of the axion solution to the strong CP problem. Together, these studies serve up a charcuterie platter of QCD matter on the foundational board of EFT.