Location: Cyclotron Building (434), Seminar Room
Dr. Ralf Rapp, Texas A&M University
Thermal Field Theory and Instantons I
Abstract:
This mini-series of lectures is aimed at giving an introduction to the concepts and some technicalities of finite-temperature field theory at the textbook level (e.g., Kapusta's book), as well as basic applications to the phase diagram of strong interactions, particularly suited for graduate students in nuclear physics and related fields.
In the first of two lectures, I first give a general motivation outlining some qualitative features of strong interactions including chiral symmetry (breaking) and the QCD phase diagram. The main part of the lecture is devoted to introducing the basic elements (partition function, thermodynamic potential) and some formalism of Quantum Field Theory at finite temperature, supplemented by explicit examples for free boson and fermion fields, as well as the treatment of interactions within the mean-field approximation.
The second lecture will be more specific to QCD with emphasis on the instanton liquid model and its applications to the nontrivial vacuum state and associated phase transitions at finite temperature and (baryon-) density. The latter are directly related to the recent vigorous activity in studying color-superconductivity.