Quark–Gluon Plasma 5

The following sections are included:

• Preface
• Contents

We review results from lattice QCD calculations on the thermodynamics of strong-interaction matter with emphasis on input these calculations can provide to the exploration of the phase diagram and properties of hot and dense matter created in heavy ion experiments. This review is organized in sections as follows: (1) Introduction, (2) QCD thermodynamics on the lattice, (3) QCD phase diagram at high temperature, (4) Bulk thermodynamics, (5) Fluctuations of conserved charges, (6) Transport properties, (7) Open heavy flavors and heavy quarkonia, (8) QCD in external magnetic fields, (9) Summary.

In this review, I present the description of the early stages of heavy ion collisions at high energy in the Color Glass Condensate framework, from the pre-collision high energy nuclear wave function to the point where hydrodynamics may start becoming applicable.

Hydrodynamics has been successful in providing a good description of the bulk dynamics in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. In this brief review, we provide basics of the theory of viscous hydrodynamics. Topics covered include derivation of the 2nd order viscous hydrodynamics from the linear response theory and kinetic theory, viscous anisotropic hydrodynamics, and numerical implementation of relativistic hydrodynamics.

Gauge/gravity duality has provided unprecedented opportunities to study dynamics in certain strongly coupled gauge theories. This review aims to highlight several applications to heavy ion collisions including far-from-equilibrium dynamics, hydrodynamics and jet energy loss at strong coupling.

We review recent theoretical developments in the study of the structure of jets that are produced in ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions. The core of the review focusses on the dynamics of the parton cascade that is induced by the interactions of a fast parton crossing a quark–gluon plasma. We recall the basic mechanisms responsible for medium induced radiation, underline the rapid disappearance of coherence effects, and the ensuing probabilistic nature of the medium induced cascade. We discuss how large radiative corrections modify the classical picture of the gluon cascade, and how these can be absorbed in a renormalization of the jet quenching parameter . Then, we analyze the (wave)-turbulent transport of energy along the medium induced cascade, and point out the main characteristics of the angular structure of such a cascade. Finally, color decoherence of the incone jet structure is discussed. Modest contact with phenomenology is presented towards the end of the review.

We present an overview of a perturbative-kinetic approach to jet propagation, energy loss, and momentum broadening in a high temperature quark–gluon plasma. The leading-order kinetic equations describe the interactions between energetic jet-particles and a non-abelian plasma, consisting of on-shell thermal excitations and soft gluonic fields. These interactions include 2 ↔ 2 scatterings, collinear bremsstrahlung, and drag and momentum diffusion. We show how the contribution from the soft gluonic fields can be factorized into a set of Wilson line correlators on the light-cone. We review recent field-theoretical developments, rooted in the causal properties of these correlators, which simplify the calculation of the appropriate Wilson lines in thermal field theory. With these simplifications lattice measurements of transverse momentum broadening have become possible, and the kinetic equations describing parton transport have been extended to next-to-leading order in the coupling g.

Jet quenching in high-energy heavy-ion collisions can be used to probe properties of hot and dense quark–gluon plasma. We provide a brief introduction to the concept and framework for the study of jet quenching. Different approaches and implementation of multiple scattering and parton energy loss are discussed. Recent progresses in the theoretical and phenomenological studies of jet quenching in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC are reviewed.

We first review the cold and hot nuclear matter effects on quarkonium production in high energy collisions, then discuss three kinds of models to describe the quarkonium suppression and regeneration: the sequential dissociation, the statistical production and the transport approach, and finally make comparisons between the models and the experimental data from heavy ion collisions at SPS, RHIC and LHC energies.