Many facets of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) are relevant to the in-depth discussion of theoretical and experimental aspects of high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Exciting phenomena are being discovered in such ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, notably the increasingly important role of deconfined quark-gluon matter created in the early stage. The book contains lectures on the physics of hot dense matter, the expected phase transitions and colour superconductivity, recent developments in the treatment of nonlinear effects at large parton densities, fundamental issues in the phenomenology of ultrarelativistic heavy collisions. The latest data on heavy ion collisions are also presented.

A unique collection of lectures on the many facets of QCD relevant to the physics of hot dense matter.

Inhalt
Perturbative QCD for Beginners.- Parton Saturation: An Overview.- The Colour Glass Condensate: An Introduction.- Recent progress in computing initial conditions for high energy heavy ion collisions.- Regge Poles in QCD and heavy-ion collisions.- Classical Chromo-Dynamics of Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions.- Collective dynamics in heavy ion collisions.- Experimentalists are from Mars, Theorists are from Venus.- Quantum Fields at Finite Temperature: a Brief Introduction.- HTL Perturbation Theory and QCD Thermodynamics.- Notes on the Deconfining Phase Transition.- Lattice QCD at Finite Temperature.- Variational approach to the dynamics of quantum fields.- Lectures on Chiral Disorder in QCD.- Heavy Ion Physics at the LHC.- Color Superconductivity.