Quantum Field Theory in Extreme Environments
Abstract:
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is a fascinating theory that accommodates spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking (that explains the origin of mass) and confinement (that leads to the hadron spectrum as observed). Such non-perturbative dynamics of QCD is still hard to understand, and QCD in extreme environments such as high temperature, high density, high energy density, and high intensity of electromagnetic fields, would provide us with a unique tool for us to make a bridge over the non-perturbative and the perturbative sectors. In this lecture, the theory of hot and dense QCD, as well as applications to real physical systems, will be reviewed, with my emphasis put especially on the most important physical degrees of freedom of hot QCD, i.e. the Polyakov loop.