Related papers: Quark Matter '99 --- Theoretical Summary: What Nex…
A proper description of the non-equilibrium matter preceding the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in heavy-ion collisions and its observable consequences remain a major theoretical challenge, while at the same time offering new opportunities for…
In this talk I discuss three recent developments in the theoretical understanding of the phase diagram of the strong interaction. The first topic deals with the comparison of model calculations of the quark-hadron transition at vanishing…
A critical review on signatures of Quark-Gluon-Plasma formation is given and the current (1998) experimental status is discussed. After giving an introduction to the properties of QCD matter in both, equilibrium- and non-equilibrium…
In nuclear collisions at relativistic energies, matter is created which resembles closely the matter that filled all space until about 15 microseconds after the big bang. Here we summarize selected aspects of the research that led to the…
One of the main activities in high-energy and nuclear physics is the search for the so-called quark-gluon plasma, a new state of matter which should have existed a few microseconds after the Big Bang. A quark-gluon plasma consists of free…
In recent years, significant progress was reached in understanding of vacuum and hadronic structure. We review recent works on the {\it point-to-point correlation functions}, comparing those obtained from phenomenology, ``instanton liquid"…
The discovery and characterization of hot and dense QCD matter, known as Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), remains the most international collaborative effort and synergy between theorists and experimentalists in modern nuclear physics to date. The…
Quantum chromodynamics predicts that the interaction between its fundamental constituents, quarks and gluons, can lead to different states of strongly interacting matter, dependent on its temperature and baryon density. We first survey the…
This article summarizes our present knowledge about nuclear matter at the highest energy densities and its formation in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We review what is known about the structure and properties of the quark-gluon plasma…
Using a unified hadron-quark effective model for the QCD equation of state, this paper studies the phase structure of strongly interacting matter in a wide range of temperature and baryonchemical potential. At small potentials the model…
The physics of heavy-ion collisions is one of the most exciting and challenging directions of science for the last four decades. On the theoretical side one deals with a non-abelian field theory, while on the experimental side today's…
Recent studies based on non-perturbative lattice Monte-Carlo solutions of Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions, demonstrated that at high temperature there is a phase change from confined hadronic matter to a deconfined…
I discuss finite-temperature gauge theories as a framework to describe the quark-gluon plasma in the regime of high temperature where the gauge coupling is small, $g << 1$. I review recent progress in the understanding of the long-range…
The phase diagram of the quark-gluon matter evolution is presented for the SU(3)-model with a new phase of heavy deconfined quarks which exists in a rather wide range of temperatures and densities. Fitting the chiral phase transition data…
A brief review on the recent theoretical progress in hot/dense QCD is given. Special emphasis is put on the non-perturbative aspects of QCD plasma and the modification of hadron proporties near the critical temperature of chiral transition.
Our current knowledge of the quark-gluon plasma in thermodynamical equilibrium is reviewed. The phase diagram of strongly interacting matter is discussed, with emphasis on the quark-hadron phase transition and the color-superconducting…
Recent experiments at RHIC and theoretical considerations indicate that the quark-gluon plasma, present in the fireball of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, might be in a liquid phase. The liquid state can be identified by characteristic…
The past fifty years have seen the emergence of a new field of research in physics, the study of matter at extreme temperatures and densities. The theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD), predicts that in this limit,…
Strongly interacting matter as described by the thermodynamics of QCD undergoes a phase transition, from a low temperature hadronic medium to a high temperature quark-gluon plasma state. In the early universe this transition occurred during…
We discuss how the dynamics of the evolving hot fireball of quark--gluon matter impacts phase transition between the deconfined and confined state of matter. The rapid expansion of the fireball of deconfined matter created in heavy ion…