The Phases of Quantum Chromodynamics
From Confinement to Extreme Environments
Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology Series

This book discusses the physical phases of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in ordinary environments, as well as in extreme environments of high temperatures and high baryon number. Under such extreme conditions, new phases are thought to exist: the quark-gluon plasma and colour superconductivity. After introducing lattice-gauge theory, beginning with fundamentals and reaching important developments, this book emphasises the application of QCD to the study of matter in extreme environments through a host of methods, including lattice-gauge theory, lower dimensional model field theories and effective Lagrangians. Suitable for graduate students and researchers entering the field of lattice-gauge theory, heavy ion collisions, nuclear theory or high energy phenomenology, as well as astrophysicists interested in the phases of nuclear matter and its impact on ideas of the interiors of dense stars. It is suitable for use as a textbook on lattice-gauge theory, effective Lagrangians and field theoretic modelling for nonperturbative phenomena in QCD.

1. Introduction; 2. Background to spin systems and critical phenomena; 3. Gauge fields on a four-dimensional Euclidean lattice; 4. Fermions and nonperturbative dynamics in QCD; 5. Lattice fermions and chiral symmetry; 6. Hamiltonian version of lattice-gauge theory; 7. Phase transitions in lattice-gauge theory at high temperatures; 8. Physics of QCD at high temperatures and chemical potentials; 9. Large chemical potentials and color superconductivity; 10. Effective Lagrangians and models of QCD at nonzero chemical potential; 11. Lattice-gauge theory at nonzero chemical potential; 12. Epilogue; References; Index.