The thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter has become a profound and challenging area of modern physics, both in theory and in experiments. Analytical and numerical studies of statistical quantum chromodynamics provide the main theoretical tool, while in experiments, high-energy nuclear collisions are the key for extensive laboratory investigations. The field therefore straddles statistical, particle and nuclear physics, both conceptually and in the methods of investigation used.
This second edition adds an introductory section on the gauge/gravity correspondence and a new chapter on the search for critical behavior in the study of higher order moments, both in finite temperature QCD and in nuclear collisions. Moreover, several other important aspects (quarkonium production, strangeness production, etc.) are brought up to date.
This course-tested primer addresses, above all, the many young scientists starting their scientific research in this field. It provides them with a general, self-contained introduction that particularly emphasizes the basic concepts and ideas, with the aim of explaining why we do what we do.
To achieve this goal, the book concentrates mainly on equilibrium thermodynamics: first, it introduces the fundamental ideas of strong interaction thermodynamics and summarizes the main concepts and methods used in the study of the physics of complex systems. It then introduces simplified phenomenological pictures, leading to critical behavior in hadronic matter and to hadron-quark phase followed by elements of finite-temperature lattice QCD leading to the important results obtained in computer simulation studies of the lattice approach. It goes on to clarify the relationship between the resulting critical behavior and symmetry breaking/restoration in QCD before turning to the study of the QCD phase diagram. The presentation of bulk equilibrium thermodynamics is completed by studying the properties of the quark-gluon plasma as new state of strongly interacting matter. The final chapters of the book are devoted to more specific topics that arise when nuclear collisions are considered as a tool for the experimental study of QCD thermodynamics.
- ISBN: 978-3-319-71893-4
- Editorial: Springer
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 270
- Fecha Publicación: 12/04/2018
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés