Colour deconfinement in hot and dense matter

Abstract

We first introduce the conceptual basis of critical behaviour in strongly interacting matter, with colour deconfinement as QCD analog of the insulator-conductor transition and chiral symmetry restoration as special case of the associated shift in the mass of the constituents. Next we summarize quark-gluon plasma formation in finite temperature lattice QCD. We consider the underlying symmetries and their spontaneous breaking/restoration in the transition, as well as the resulting changes in thermodynamic behaviour. Finally, we turn to the experimental study of strongly interacting matter by high energy nuclear collisions, using charmonium production to probe the confinement status of the produced primordial medium. Recent results from Pb-Pb collisions at CERN may provide first evidence for colour deconfinement.