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.

This is a review volume containing articles written by experts on current theoretical topics in the subject of Quark-Gluon Plasma created in heavy-ion collisions at high energy. It is the fourth volume in the series with the same title sequenced numerically. The articles are written in a pedagogical style so that they can be helpful to a wide range of researchers from graduate students to mature physicists who have not worked previously on the subject. A reader should be able to learn from the reviews without having extensive knowledge of the background literature.

The aim of this book is to offer to the next generation of young researchers a broad and largely self-contained introduction to the physics of heavy ion collisions and the quark-gluon plasma, providing material beyond that normally found in the available textbooks. For each of the main aspects - QCD thermodynamics and global features of the QGP, collision hydrodynamics, electromagnetic probes, jet and quarkonium production, color glass condensate, and the gravity connection - the present volume provides extensive and pedagogical lectures, surveying the present status of both theory and experiment. A particular feature of this volume is that all lectures have been written with the active assistance of selected students present at the course in order to ensure the adequate level and coverage for the intended readership.

This book highlights the discussions by renown researchers on questions emerged during transition from the relativistic heavy-ion collider (RHIC) to the future electron ion collider (EIC). Over the past two decades, the RHIC has provided a vast amount of data over a wide range of the center of mass energies. What are the scientific priorities, after RHIC is shut down and turned to the future EIC? What should be the future focuses of the high-energy nuclear collisions? What are thermodynamic properties of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) at large baryon density? Where is the phase boundary between quark-gluon-plasma and hadronic matter at high baryon density? How does one make connections from thermodynamics learned in high-energy nuclear collisions to astrophysical topics, to name few, the inner structure of compact stars, and perhaps more interestingly, the dynamical processes of the merging of neutron stars? While most particle physicists are interested in Dark Matter, we should focus on the issues of Visible Matter! Multiple heavy-ion accelerator complexes are under construction: NICA at JINR (4 ~ 11 GeV), FAIR at GSI (2 ~ 4.9 GeV SIS100), HIAF at IMP (2 ~ 4 GeV). In addition, the heavy-ion collision has been actively discussed at the J-PARC. The book is a collective work of top researchers from the field where some of the above-mentioned basic questions will be addressed. We believe that answering those questions will certainly advance our understanding of the phase transition in early universe as well as its evolution that leads to today's world of nature.

Annotation. Text reviews the major topics in Quark-Gluon Plasma, including: the QCD phase diagram, the transition temperature, equation of state, heavy quark free energies, and thermal modifications of hadron properties. Includes index, references, and appendix. For researchers and practitioners.