Aleksas Mazeliauskas

Dr. Aleksas Mazeliauskas

Group leader

What we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
— Werner Heisenberg

Hello, my name is Aleksas Mazeliauskas. I am a theoretical physicist working on many-body phenomena emerging from interactions of a small number of particles in high-energy hadron collisions and ultracold quantum gases.

Since 2022 I have been leading an Emmy Noether Research Group at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Heidelberg University. As of 2024, I am a project leader at the Collaborative Research Center ISOQUANT.

My group’s research focuses on the microscopic understanding of the emergent collective phenomena in systems of varying sizes and at varying energy scales. I am especially interested in the question of thermalisation and hydrodynamic behaviour in isolated quantum systems.

Check out my research projects, publications and profiles of my group members. See the news announcements for open positions and my blog for occasional posts about my life as a researcher.

News

Sep 09, 2025	My new paper paper Energy loss baseline for light hadrons in oxygen-oxygen collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.36\,\text{TeV}$ is available in ArXiv!
Sep 08, 2025	I am happy to announce the summary report of RRTF: Few is different: deciphering many-body dynamics in mesoscopic quantum gases
Jul 16, 2025	There is a new open PhD position in my group! Please share with suitable candidates.
Jun 03, 2025	I held a short presentation as part of “Quantum am Mittag: von kleinen Teilchen und großen Ideen” at the Heidelberg University titled “The Big Bang in the Lab”.
Apr 07, 2025	Published two new papers on chiral QCD phase transition! A long paper: Quenching through the QCD chiral phase transition and a letter: Supercooled Goldstones at the QCD chiral phase transition in collaboration with Derek Teaney, Eduardo Grossi, Alexander Soloviev, and Adrien Florio.

Latest posts

Jul 02, 2025	First Oxygen Ion collisions at LHC July 2-5, 2025, I made a short but memorable trip to CERN, where—for the first time in its history—the LHC collided oxygen ions.
Nov 17, 2024	Light ion workshop at CERN November 11-15, 2024, I and my group (Adam, Fabian and Jannis) attended CERN TH workshop on Light ion collisions at the LHC.
Dec 26, 2023	First year of my Emmy Noether group As of October 2023, I have completed my first year (out of a maximum of six) as an Emmy Noether Research Group Leader at the Institute for Theoretical Physics. Overall, it was a great and enjoyable year working with my group and other colleagues at Heidelberg University.

Selected publications

assets/img/publication_preview/Mazeliauskas_2025clt.jpg

Energy loss baseline for light hadrons in oxygen-oxygen collisions at $ \sqrt{ s_\mathrm { NN } }=5.36\,\text{ TeV } $

Aleksas Mazeliauskas

2025

Cite

@article{Mazeliauskas:2025clt,
  author = {Mazeliauskas, Aleksas},
  title = {{ Energy loss baseline for light hadrons in oxygen-oxygen collisions at $$ \sqrt\{ s_\mathrm \{ NN \} \}=5.36\,\text\{ TeV \} $$ }},
  eprint = {2509.07008},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  month = sep,
  year = {2025},
}

assets/img/publication_preview/Berges_2025izb.jpg

Few is different: deciphering many-body dynamics in mesoscopic quantum gases

Juergen Berges, Sandra Brandstetter, Jasmine Brewer, and 27 more authors

In , 2025

DOI Cite

@inproceedings{Berges:2025izb,
  author = {Berges, Juergen and Brandstetter, Sandra and Brewer, Jasmine and Bruun, Georg and Enss, Tilman and Floerchinger, Stefan and Fujii, Keisuke and Galka, Maciej and Giacalone, Giuliano and Guan, Qingze and Heintze, Carl and Heyen, Lars H. and Selyuzhenkov, Ilya and Jochim, Selim and Levinsen, Jesper and Lunt, Philipp and Masciocchi, Silvia and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Navon, Nir and Ohlson, Alice and Parish, Meera and Reimann, Stephanie M. and Scazza, Francesco and Schaefer, Thomas and Teaney, Derek and Thywissen, Joseph and Venugopalan, Raju and Yan, Yangqian and Zaccanti, Matteo and Zache, Torsten V.},
  title = {{Few is different: deciphering many-body dynamics in mesoscopic quantum gases}},
  eprint = {2509.05049},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {cond-mat.quant-gas},
  doi = {10.48550/arXiv.2509.05049},
  month = sep,
  year = {2025},
}

assets/img/publication_preview/Mazeliauskas_2025jyi.jpg

Hydrodynamic attractor in periodically driven ultracold quantum gases

Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and Tilman Enss

2025

arXiv Cite

@article{Mazeliauskas:2025jyi,
  author = {Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Enss, Tilman},
  title = {{Hydrodynamic attractor in periodically driven ultracold quantum gases}},
  month = jan,
  year = {2025},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {cond-mat.quant-gas},
}

Phys. Rev. C

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Relativistic Viscous Hydrodynamics in the Density Frame: Numerical Tests and Comparisons

Jay Bhambure, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, Jean-Francois Paquet, and 4 more authors

Phys. Rev. C, 2024

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Bhambure:2024axa,
  author = {Bhambure, Jay and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Paquet, Jean-Francois and Singh, Rajeev and Singh, Mayank and Teaney, Derek and Zhou, Fabian},
  title = {{Relativistic Viscous Hydrodynamics in the Density Frame: Numerical Tests and Comparisons}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {nucl-th},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevC.111.064910},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. C},
  volume = {111},
  issue = {6},
  pages = {064910},
  month = dec,
  year = {2024},
}

JHEP

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No-quenching baseline for energy loss signals in oxygen-oxygen collisions

Jannis Gebhard, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and Adam Takacs

JHEP, 2024

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Gebhard:2024flv,
  author = {Gebhard, Jannis and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Takacs, Adam},
  title = {{No-quenching baseline for energy loss signals in oxygen-oxygen collisions}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  doi = {10.1007/JHEP04(2025)034},
  journal = {JHEP},
  volume = {2025},
  number = {4},
  pages = {34},
  month = oct,
  year = {2024},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

assets/img/publication_preview/Heller_2023mah.jpg

Prescaling Relaxation to Nonthermal Attractors

Michal P. Heller, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and Thimo Preis

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2024

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Heller:2023mah,
  author = {Heller, Michal P. and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Preis, Thimo},
  title = {{Prescaling Relaxation to Nonthermal Attractors}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-th},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.071602},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {132},
  number = {7},
  pages = {071602},
  year = {2024},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

assets/img/publication_preview/Attems_2022otp.png

Medium-Enhanced c\barc Radiation

Maximilian Attems, Jasmine Brewer, Gian Michele Innocenti, and 5 more authors

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2024

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Attems:2022otp,
  author = {Attems, Maximilian and Brewer, Jasmine and Innocenti, Gian Michele and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Park, Sohyun and van der Schee, Wilke and Soyez, Gregory and Wiedemann, Urs Achim},
  title = {{Medium-Enhanced $c\bar{c}$ Radiation}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  reportnumber = {CERN-TH-2022-046},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.212301},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {132},
  number = {21},
  pages = {212301},
  year = {2024},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Discovering Partonic Rescattering in Light Nucleus Collisions

Alexander Huss, Aleksi Kurkela, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and 3 more authors

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2021

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Huss:2020dwe,
  author = {Huss, Alexander and Kurkela, Aleksi and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Paatelainen, Risto and van der Schee, Wilke and Wiedemann, Urs Achim},
  title = {{Discovering Partonic Rescattering in Light Nucleus Collisions}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  reportnumber = {CERN-TH-2020-126},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.192301},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {126},
  number = {19},
  pages = {192301},
  year = {2021},
}

Rev. Mod. Phys.
QCD thermalization: Ab initio approaches and interdisciplinary connections

Jürgen Berges, Michal P. Heller, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and 1 more author

Rev. Mod. Phys., 2021

Abs DOI arXiv Cite

Heavy-ion collisions at BNL’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider provide strong evidence for the formation of a quark-gluon plasma, with temperatures extracted from relativistic viscous hydrodynamic simulations shown to be well above the transition temperature from hadron matter. Outstanding problems in QCD include how the strongly correlated quark-gluon matter forms in a heavy-ion collision, its properties off equilibrium, and the thermalization process in the plasma. The theoretical progress in this field in weak-coupling QCD effective field theories and in strong-coupling holographic approaches based on gauge-gravity duality is reviewed. The interdisciplinary connections of different stages of the thermalization process to nonequilibrium dynamics in other systems across energy scales ranging from inflationary cosmology to strong-field QED to ultracold atomic gases are outlined, with emphasis placed on the universal dynamics of nonthermal and hydrodynamic attractors. Measurements in heavy-ion collisions are surveyed that are sensitive to the early nonequilibrium stages of the collision and the potential for future measurements is discussed. The current state of the art in thermalization studies is summarized and promising avenues for further progress are identified.
@article{Berges:2020fwq, author = {Berges, J\"urgen and Heller, Michal P. and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Venugopalan, Raju}, title = {{QCD thermalization: Ab initio approaches and interdisciplinary connections}}, archiveprefix = {arXiv}, primaryclass = {hep-th}, reportnumber = {CERN-TH-2020-080}, doi = {10.1103/RevModPhys.93.035003}, journal = {Rev. Mod. Phys.}, volume = {93}, number = {3}, pages = {035003}, year = {2021}, }

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Hydrodynamic attractors, initial state energy and particle production in relativistic nuclear collisions

Giuliano Giacalone, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and Sören Schlichting

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Giacalone:2019ldn,
  author = {Giacalone, Giuliano and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Schlichting, S\"oren},
  title = {{Hydrodynamic attractors, initial state energy and particle production in relativistic nuclear collisions}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  reportnumber = {INT-PUB-19-036},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.262301},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {123},
  number = {26},
  pages = {262301},
  year = {2019},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

assets/img/publication_preview/Kurkela_2018xxd.png

Chemical Equilibration in Hadronic Collisions

Aleksi Kurkela, and Aleksas Mazeliauskas

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Kurkela:2018xxd,
  author = {Kurkela, Aleksi and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas},
  title = {{Chemical Equilibration in Hadronic Collisions}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  reportnumber = {CERN-TH-2018-238},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.142301},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {122},
  pages = {142301},
  year = {2019},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

assets/img/publication_preview/Mazeliauskas_2018yef.png

Prescaling and far-from-equilibrium hydrodynamics in the quark-gluon plasma

Aleksas Mazeliauskas, and Jürgen Berges

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Mazeliauskas:2018yef,
  author = {Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Berges, J\"urgen},
  title = {{Prescaling and far-from-equilibrium hydrodynamics in the quark-gluon plasma}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.122301},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {122},
  number = {12},
  pages = {122301},
  year = {2019},
}

Phys. Rev. Lett.

assets/img/publication_preview/Kurkela_2018wud.png

Matching the Nonequilibrium Initial Stage of Heavy Ion Collisions to Hydrodynamics with QCD Kinetic Theory

Aleksi Kurkela, Aleksas Mazeliauskas, Jean-François Paquet, and 2 more authors

Phys. Rev. Lett., 2019

DOI arXiv Cite

@article{Kurkela:2018wud,
  author = {Kurkela, Aleksi and Mazeliauskas, Aleksas and Paquet, Jean-Fran\c{c}ois and Schlichting, S\"oren and Teaney, Derek},
  title = {{Matching the Nonequilibrium Initial Stage of Heavy Ion Collisions to Hydrodynamics with QCD Kinetic Theory}},
  archiveprefix = {arXiv},
  primaryclass = {hep-ph},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.122302},
  journal = {Phys. Rev. Lett.},
  volume = {122},
  number = {12},
  pages = {122302},
  year = {2019},
}