dr Pok Man Lo (IFT)

Phase Diagram of QCD

A brief and biased overview of the QCD phase diagram is presented from two perspectives: (1) confinement, and (2) spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. The first part chiefly consists of a quick summary of recent lattice computations related to confinement while the second examines the ideas of dynamical mass generation in the context of strong interaction. The connection between symmetry breaking and phase transition will be explored. Finally, I comment on how a detailed study of the phase transition from hadronic matter to a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons, can improve our understanding of the cooling history of the early Universe.