Special Issue "Symmetry of QCD Matter at Finite Temperature"

Dear Colleagues,

It has been a long time since people have tried to understand the symmetry of quantum Chromodynamics (QCDs). Especially, in association with the confinement phenomenon of QCD matter, the symmetry of the physical states becomes very different from the fundamental symmetry in a QCD Lagrangian. The symmetry of QCD matter depends on the energy scale of the system, and also differs with the contents of bound states. The symmetry of QCD matter then entails the rich phase structure of QCD under some environmental conditions such as temperature and chemical potential. The phase transition of QCD can be mainly characterized using the chiral symmetry, which has been widely focused on both theoretically and experimentally. The existence and the possible location of the critical end point (CEP) for the chiral phase transition is the main goal of the heavy ion collision experiments.

Moreover, further studies and results from experiments are revealing that the symmetry of QCD matter at finite temperatures and densities is even more complicated. Especially, it has been widely accepted that a strongly coupled quark gluon plasma has been created in the heavy ion collision experiments. The new state behaves similar to a nearly perfect fluid with an exceptionally small value for the shear-viscosity-to-entropy-density ratio, which indicates very different collective modes from the weakly coupled quasi-quark and gluon. Therefore, to fully understand the symmetry of QCD matter at finite temperature, there are more questions that need to be addressed, for instance, what is the relation between the chiral phase transition and the deconfinement, how sQGP forms a nearly perfect fluid and what is its symmetry and its collective mode, and, moreover, is it related to the possibly existing phases such as the color superconductor phase or quarkyonic phase when at a large chemical potential.

This Special Issue is aimed to explore the phase structure of QCD matter and also attempt to find the explanation of its symmetry pattern and the underlying mechanism. The work may include (but is not limited to) the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature and also other conditions, the thermodynamic properties and also the global properties such as the spin structure and transport properties of QCD matter, the exotic and possible new phases such as the soliton phases, quarkyonic phase, and color superconductor phase, and the related symmetry and the properties.

Please note that all submissions should be full in the scope of Symmetry Journal.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Fei Gao
Prof. Dr. Yu-xin Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• QCD phase structure
• dynamical symmetry breaking
• deconfinement
• global properties of QCD matter