Light front field theory of quark matter at finite temperature

Abstract

A light front field theory for finite temperature and density is currently being developed. It will be used here to describe the transition region from quark matter to nuclear matter relevant in heavy ion collisions and in the early universe. The energy regime addressed is extremely challenging, both theoretically and experimentally. This is because of the confinement of quarks, the appearance of bound states and correlations, special relativity, and nonlinear phenomena that lead to a change of the vacuum structure of quantum chromodynamics. In the region of the phase transition it eventually leads to a change of the relevant degrees of freedom. We aim at describing this transition from quarks to hadronic degrees of freedom in a unified microscopic approach.