QCD in Extreme Conditions and the Wilsonian `Exact Renormalization Group'

Abstract

This is an introduction to the use of nonperturbative flow equations in strong interaction physics at nonzero temperature and baryon density. We investigate the QCD phase diagram as a function of temperature, chemical potential for baryon number and quark mass within the linear quark meson model for two flavors. Whereas the renormalization group flow leads to spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in vacuum, the symmetry is restored in a second order phase transition at high temperature and vanishing quark mass. We explicitly connect the physics at zero temperature and realistic quark mass with the universal behavior near the critical temperature $T_c$ and the chiral limit. At high density we find a chiral symmetry restoring first order transition. The results imply the presence of a tricritical point with long-range correlations in the phase diagram. We end with an outlook to densities above the chiral transition, where QCD is expected to behave as a color superconductor at low temperature.