STRONGLY INTERACTING MATTER AT HIGH ENERGY DENSITY

Abstract

This lecture concerns the properties of strongly interacting matter (which is described by Quantum Chromodynamics) at very high energy density. I review the properties of matter at high temperature, discussing the deconfinement phase transition. At high baryon density and low temperature, large Nc arguments are developed which suggest that high baryonic density matter is a third form of matter, Quarkyonic Matter, that is distinct from confined hadronic matter and deconfined matter. I finally discuss the Color Glass Condensate which controls the high energy limit of QCD, and forms the low x part of a hadron wave function. The Glasma is introduced as matter formed by the Color Glass Condensate which eventually thermalizes into a Quark Gluon Plasma.