Extreme states of matter in strong interaction physics. An introduction. (Q639259)

This book is a general introduction to the thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter emphasizing, in particular, the basic concepts and ideas mainly on equilibrium thermodynamics. It is organized as follows: The fundamental ideas of strong interaction thermodynamics are introduced in Chapter 1. The main concepts and methods used in the study of complex systems are summarized in Chapter 2. Chapters 3 and 4 cover simplified phenomenological pictures, leading to critical behavior in hadronic matter and to hadron-quark phase transitions. Lattice QCD and Computer Simulation of Gauge Field Thermodynamics are discussed in Chapter 5. Complementary to this, the relation of the resulting critical behavior to symmetry breaking/restoration in QCD is described in Chapter 6. In Chapter 7, an extension of the considerations to strongly interacting matter at finite baryon density provides the basis for the study of the QCD phase diagram. The main features of a new state of matter, the quark-gluon plasma are investigated in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9 some conceptual basis are introduced to study some specific features which arise when nuclear collisions are considered as a tool for the experimental study of QCD thermodynamics. Chapter 10 briefly surveys the main probes proposed to investigate the properties of the medium produced in such collisions. The last two chapters deal with hadron production in high energy collisions.