1 research outputs found
From Notes to Chords in QCD
After a very brief overview recollecting the `classic' parts of QCD, that is
its application to describe hard processes and static properties of hadrons, I
survey recent work -- some very recent -- on QCD at non-zero temperature and
density. At finite temperature and zero density there is a compelling
theoretical framework allowing us to predict highly specific, non-trivial
dependence of the phase structure on the number of flavors and colors. Several
aspects have been rigorously, and successfully, tested against massive
numerical realizations of the microscopic theory. The theoretical description
of high density is nowhere near as mature, but some intriguing possibilities
have been put forward. The color/flavor locked state recently proposed for
three flavors has many remarkable features connected to its basic symmetry
structure, notably including chiral symmetry re-breaking and the existence
(unlike for two flavors) of a gauge invariant order parameter. I survey
potential applications to heavy ion collisions, astrophysics, and cosmology. A
noteworthy possibility is that stellar explosions are powered by release of QCD
latent heat.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, 1 figure. Reference added. Will appear in
Proceedings of QCD at Finite Baryon Density Conference, April 1998,
Universitaet Bielefeld, German