Advances in perturbative thermal field theory

Abstract

The progress of the last decade in perturbative quantum field theory at high temperature and density made possible by the use of effective field theories and hard-thermal/dense-loop resummations in ultrarelativistic gauge theories is reviewed. The relevant methods are discussed in field theoretical models from simple scalar theories to non-Abelian gauge theories including gravity. In the simpler models, the aim is to give a pedagogical account of some of the relevant problems and their resolution, while in the more complicated but also more interesting models such as quantum chromodynamics, a summary of the results obtained so far are given together with references to a few most recent developments and open problems.

Comments: 84 pages, 18 figues, review article submitted to Reports on Progress in Physics; v2, v3: minor additions and corrections, more references