This book contains articles by experts on the plasma phase of quantum chromodynamics, and the plasma phase of electroweak interactions. The former plasma phase is being tested at RHIC (Brookhaven), and has been tested at CERN. Both plasmas have played roles in the development of the Universe since the Big Bang. A third topic is that of the high density colour superconductive state of matter, which may be present in the core of neutron stars.

The SEWM2002 workshop, like the ones before, brought together theoretical physicists working on thermal field theory and, more generally, on (resummation) techniques for deriving effective actions based on QCD and the electroweak standard model of elementary particle physics, but describing nonstandard situations. The focus was on the temperature/chemical potential phase diagram of QCD, considered both analytically and with lattice gauge theory, equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermo field theory, and on heavy ion physics. Other related topics were “small x physics” in QCD, electroweak baryogenesis, inflation, and dark energy in the early universe.

This book contains articles by experts on the plasma phase of quantum chromodynamics, and the plasma phase of electroweak interactions. The former plasma phase is being tested at RHIC (Brookhaven), and has been tested at CERN. Both plasmas have played roles in the development of the Universe since the Big Bang. A third topic is that of the high density colour superconductive state of matter, which may be present in the core of neutron stars.

The physics of strongly interacting matter in an external magnetic field is presently emerging as a topic of great cross-disciplinary interest for particle, nuclear, astro- and condensed matter physicists. It is known that strong magnetic fields are created in heavy ion collisions, an insight that has made it possible to study a variety of surprising and intriguing phenomena that emerge from the interplay of quantum anomalies, the topology of non-Abelian gauge fields, and the magnetic field. In particular, the non-trivial topological configurations of the gluon field induce a non-dissipative electric current in the presence of a magnetic field. These phenomena have led to an extended formulation of relativistic hydrodynamics, called chiral magnetohydrodynamics. Hitherto unexpected applications in condensed matter physics include graphene and topological insulators. Other fields of application include astrophysics, where strong magnetic fields exist in magnetars and pulsars. Last but not least, an important new theoretical tool that will be revisited and which made much of the progress surveyed in this book possible is the holographic principle - the correspondence between quantum field theory and gravity in extra dimensions. Edited and authored by the pioneers and leading experts in this newly emerging field, this book offers a valuable resource for a broad community of physicists and graduate students.

An expanded and up-dated book examining gauge theories and their symmetries.