Quantum Fields at Finite Temperature "from tera to nano Kelvin"

Abstract

These lectures introduce techniques that are used in the description of systems of particles and fields at high temperature (or density). These methods have a broad range of physical applications. We shall discuss two specific applications: one related to hot and dense matter composed of quarks and gluons, with temperatures in the tera Kelvin range, the other related to Bose-Einstein condensation in ultra-cold gases, with temperatures in the nano Kelvin range. As we shall see, in both systems, long wavelength collective phenomena lead to similar features, in spite of the huge difference in orders of magnitude of the respective energy scales.