Lattice QCD at finite temperature and density

Abstract

QCD at finite temperature and density is becoming increasingly important for various experimental programmes, ranging from heavy ion physics to astro-particle physics. The non-perturbative nature of non-abelian quantum field theories at finite temperature leaves lattice QCD as the only tool by which we may hope to come to reliable predictions from first principles. This requires careful extrapolations to the thermodynamic, chiral and continuum limits in order to eliminate systematic effects introduced by the discretization procedure. After an introduction to lattice QCD at finite temperature and density, its possibilities and current systematic limitations, a review of present numerical results is given. In particular, plasma properties such as the equation of state, screening masses, static quark free energies and spectral functions are discussed, as well as the critical temperature and the QCD phase structure at zero and finite density.Comment: 32 pages, typos corrected, reference added. Lectures given at 45. Internationale Universitatswochen fur Theoretische Physik: (Schladming Winter School on Theoretical Physics): Conceptual and Numerical Challenges in Femto-Scale and Peta-Scale Physics, Schladming, Styria, Austria, 24 Feb - 3 Mar 200