An introduction to the basic theory and recent advances in QCD, for graduates and researchers.

Particle and nuclear physicists frequently take results from Lattice QCD at their face value without probing into their reliability or sophistication. This attitude usually stems from a lack of knowledge of the field. The aim of the present volume is to rectify this by introducing in an elementary way several topics, which we believe are appropriate for, and of possible interest to, both particle and nuclear physicists who are non-experts in the field.

This book begins with a brief historical review of the early applications of standard dispersion relations in particle physics. It then presents the modern perspective within the Standard Model, emphasizing the relation of analyticity together with alternative tools applied to strong interactions, such as perturbative and lattice quantum chromodynamics (QCD), as well as chiral perturbation theory. The core of the book argues that, in order to improve the prediction of specific hadronic observables, it is often necessary to resort to methods of complex analysis more sophisticated than the simple Cauchy integral. Accordingly, a separate mathematical chapter is devoted to solving several functional analysis optimization problems. Their applications to physical amplitudes and form factors are discussed in the following chapters, which also demonstrate how to merge the analytic approach with statistical analysis tools. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable guide for researchers working in precision hadronic physics, as well as graduate students who are new to the field.

This 2004 book provides a pedagogical introduction to the perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The text introduces the basic theory of QCD and its historical development, covering pre-QCD ideas of strong interactions such as the quark and parton models, the notion of colours and the S-matrix approach. The author then discusses gauge theory, techniques of dimensional regularization and renormalization, deep inelastic scattering and hard processes in hadron collisions, hadron jets and e+e- annihilations. Other topics include power corrections and the technologies of the Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov operating product expansion. The final parts of the book are devoted to modern non-perturbative approaches to QCD and the phenomenological aspects of QCD spectral sum rules. The book will be a valuable reference for graduate students and researchers in high-energy particle and nuclear physics, both theoretical and experimental. This book has been reissued as an Open Access publication on Cambridge Core.

The study of hadrons unites a variety of theoretical approaches, ranging from low-energy QCD dynamics, chiral perturbation theory, and meson and baryon phenomenology, to the effects of hot and dense nuclear matter. Fruitful crosslinks between these topics had become clear in the recent past. These proceedings form a coherent overview of the actual state of low-energy hadron physics.

This book presents a recent survey of the advances in hadron physics. The main topics are nonperturbative high energy processes in QCD, deep inelastic scattering and perturbative QCD, RHIC and quark-gluon plasma physics and effective theories for low energy QCD.The book contains four series of lectures written in a pedagogical style and a number of short papers on the main subject. They will benefit researchers who want to be familiar with the frontiers of hadron physics and its connection with the large experimental programs under development in laboratories such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory.