Research in HIC for FAIR is structured in four expert groups, in which scientists are working on closely related topics:

Each expert group meets biannually for the HIC for FAIR Physics Days which are dedicated to discussing the progress from the various scientists in the expert groups. 

The research covered by the expert group 1 focuses on large-scale simulations of FAIR-related physics based on transport, monte-carlo, and hydrodynamic descriptions of matter.

We study the dynamics of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions with different transport- and hydrodynamics models. Here, the experts study event-by-event fluctuations, the role of multi-particle interactions, off-shell effects in the dynamics, the effects of viscosities and the QCD phase structure. Major work is being done combining the transport and hydrodynamic descriptions in a hybrid approach. This includes efforts to integrate fluctuations of the order parameters in the simulations. In the area of lattice QCD, the main issues that are investigated are the dependence of the phase transition on the fermionic formalism adopted as well as the phase structure at non-zero baryon net density. Further, lattice simulations are exploited to determine parameters of effective models of strong interaction.

Another important facet of the expert group is the expansion of supernova explosion simulations to full 3d descriptions with neutrino transport including realistic equations of state. Heavy-ion tumor radiation simulations are performed with the aim to generate a full treatment plan for clinical therapy.

On the methodological side, work is being done to improve the numerical treatment of systems of coupled partial differential equations as they occur in various simulation approaches. This includes improved implementations of multi-grid methods.

Expert group 2, QCD phenomenology, deals with the properties of strongly interacting matter in different environments. The experts use a range of carefully designed methods such as functional approaches, effective theories, renormalisation group methods and many-body techniques to explore strong-interaction physics relevant for the PANDA, CBM and NUSTAR experiments at FAIR. The goals include the description of ordinary and exotic QCD states like light mesons, glueballs and charmonia as well as a precise understanding of the structure and the reactions of baryons. We investigate the properties and phases of strongly interacting matter at high temperatures and/or densities and the experts in this group explore the structure of light and heavy nuclei as well as their reaction properties. In addition the experts study astrophysical applications such as the synthesis of heavy elements in the dynamics of star explosions and the properties of dense stellar objects.

The work in expert group 3 covers the R&D activities related to the developments for the FAIR experiments APPA, CBM, the various NuSTAR experiments, and PANDA. This includes the development of new detector systems, sophisticated trigger and data-acquisition systems, as well as software developments needed for the extraction of physical results from the complex detection patterns. Concerning high-performance computation, an on-site Green-IT building is being developed that will use new state-of-the-art cooling technology requiring substantial R&D work. Field tests on cloud computing are carried out in the newly-developed Frankfurt Cloud Initiative.

The activities of expert group 4 are focused on the optimization and required R&D work on the FAIR accelerators. The proposed tasks address specific R&D topics that are important for the FAIR accelerator systems and for new ion acceleration methods.

The linac activities concentrate on cavity and beam transport developments, focussing on high brightness beams and high electric fields for efficient acceleration of intense beams. Concerning high current synchrotrons, beam dynamics, RF-systems and cavities, diagnostics and beam losses including the related material science question are the main topics. One of the main differences between the RF-control of SIS18 compared to the FAIR machines is the variety and number of RF cavities that have to be synchronized. Furthermore, longitudinal beam stabilization has to be investigated to validate the existing longitudinal feedback concepts for an application in the scope of the FAIR project.

Overlap with the APPA collaboration include the target techniques for storage-ring, charge exchange processes in rings, diagnostics and materials for high current ring accelerators. Finally the expert group investigates laser driven ion beam acceleration as a new concept in detail. This investigation needs new simulation tools to describe the extremely dense particle distribution involved during generation and transport along the very first micrometers, millimeters and centimeters.