The Phase Diagram of Strongly-Interacting Matter

Understand

A fundamental question of physics is what ultimately happens to matter as it is heated or compressed.

• In the realm of very high temperature and density the fundamental degrees of freedom of the strong interaction, quarks and gluons, come into play and a transition from matter consisting of confined baryons and mesons to a state with 'liberated' quarks and gluons is expected.
• The study of the possible phases of strongly-interacting matter is at the focus of many research activities worldwide.
• In this article we discuss physical aspects of the phase diagram, its relation to the evolution of the early universe as well as the inner core of neutron stars.