Charmonium suppression is a promising signal of quark-gluon plasma. In this volume, the latest development both in experiments and in the theory of charmonium production in high-energy nuclear collisions are presented and discussed.

This is a collection of exciting papers in the area of high energy nuclear collisions and quark gluon plasma. The volume covers lectures on the natures of hadronic matter at high temperature and/or density and signals of quark-hadron phase transitions. It also includes discussions and descriptions of the data of CERN and BNL nucleus-nucleus collisions. Other contributions deal with physics at RHIC, LHC and the PS-collider, collision simulators and various related topics.

Charmonium suppression is a promising signal of quark-gluon plasma. In this volume, the latest development both in experiments and in the theory of charmonium production in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are presented and discussed. This invaluable book is based on E Witten's lectures on topological quantum field theory which were presented in the spring of 1989 at Fine Hall, Princeton. At that time Witten unified several important mathematical works in terms of quantum field theory, most notably the Donaldson polynomial, Gromov/Floer homology and Jones polynomials. In the book Witten explains his three-dimensional construction of Jones polynomials via Chern-Simons gauge theory. The classical moduli space consists of unitary flat connections. To quantize it, he constructs a Hilbert space consisting of holomorphic sections of the natural determinant bundle over the moduli space, or non-Abelian theta functions. He explains that the quantization is independent of complex structures so that the theory becomes topological. He then constructs morphisms in terms of the Feynman path integral. He provides the relevant background, such as the Feynman -- Kac formula and Feynman diagrams, thus making the book more accessible to mathematicians. His construction leads to many beautiful applications, such as the skein relation, the surgery formula and a proof of Verlinde's formula.

The thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter has become a profound and challenging area of modern physics, both in theory and in experiment. Statistical quantum chromodynamics, through analytical as well as numerical studies, provides the main theoretical tool, while in experiment, 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 course-tested primer addresses above all the many young scientists starting their scientific research in this field, providing them with a general, self-contained introduction that emphasizes in particular the basic concepts and ideas, with the aim of explaining why we do what we do. To achieve this goal, the present text concentrates mainly on equilibrium thermodynamics: first, the fundamental ideas of strong interaction thermodynamics are introduced and then the main concepts and methods used in the study of the physics of complex systems are summarized. Subsequently, simplified phenomenological pictures, leading to critical behavior in hadronic matter and to hadron-quark phase transitions are introduced, followed by elements of finite-temperature lattice QCD leading to the important results obtained in computer simulation studies of the lattice approach. Next, the relation of the resulting critical behavior to symmetry breaking/restoration in QCD is clarified before the text turns 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 which arise when nuclear collisions are considered as a tool for the experimental study of QCD thermodynamics.

"This is the fifth volume in the series on the subject of quark-gluon plasma, a unique phase created in heavy-ion collisions at high energy. It contains review articles by the world experts on various aspects of quark-gluon plasma taking into account the advances driven by the latest experimental data collected at both the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The articles are pedagogical and comprehensive which can be helpful for both new researchers entering the field as well as the experienced physicists working on the subject."--

This is the fifth volume in the series on the subject of quark-gluon plasma, a unique phase created in heavy-ion collisions at high energy. It contains review articles by the world experts on various aspects of quark-gluon plasma taking into account the advances driven by the latest experimental data collected at both the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The articles are pedagogical and comprehensive which can be helpful for both new researchers entering the field as well as the experienced physicists working on the subject.

Many high-energy collider experiments (including the current Large Hadron Collider at CERN) involve the collision of hadrons. Hadrons are composite particles consisting of partons (quarks and gluons), and this means that in any hadron-hadron collision there will typically be multiple collisions of the constituents — i.e. multiple parton interactions (MPI). Understanding the nature of the MPI is important in terms of searching for new physics in the products of the scatters, and also in its own right to gain a greater understanding of hadron structure. This book aims at providing a pedagogical introduction and a comprehensive review of different research lines linked by an involvement of MPI phenomena. It is written by pioneers as well as young leading scientists, and reviews both experimental findings and theoretical developments, discussing also the remaining open issues.