Cold Dense Baryonic Matter and Compact Stars

Abstract: Probing dense hadronic matter is thus far an uncharted field of physics. Here we give a brief summary of the highlights of what has been so far accomplished and what will be done in the years ahead by the World Class University III Project at Hanyang University in the endeavor to unravel and elucidate the multifacet of the cold dense baryonic matter existing in the interior of the densest visible stable object in the Universe, i.e., neutron stars, strangeness stars and/or quark stars, from a modest and simplified starting point of an effective field theory modeled on the premise of QCD as well as from a gravity dual approach of hQCD. The core of the matter of our research is the possible origin of the $\sim 99$ of the proton mass that is to be accounted for and how the "vacuum" can be tweaked so that the source of the mass generation can be uncovered by measurements made in terrestrial as well as space laboratories. Some of the issues treated in the program concern what can be done - both theoretically and experimentally - in anticipation of what's to come for basic physics research in Korea.