The Nucleon --- Free, Bound, and under Extreme Conditions

Abstract: 
"I will first describe how the internal structure of a free nucleon and its finer details are revealed as the nucleon is poked with successively higher energy probes. Despite the long history of this field, there are still significant gaps in our understanding. Next, I will outline how the parton structure of the nucleon gets modified when the nucleon is not free but bound inside a nucleus --- a surprising result because the energy of the probe is orders of magnitude higher than the nuclear binding energy. Here again our understanding is not complete. In the last and the main part of the talk, I will present an overview of the field of quark-gluon plasma and ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where the nucleon is subjected to the extremes of temperature and pressure. I will describe the most important observables and their status in the current experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN. I will highlight the important role the relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics is playing in describing the flow of the matter formed in these collisions."