This is the sequel to the first volume to treat in one effective field theory framework the physics of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions. This is vital for understanding the high temperature phenomena taking place in relativistic heavy ion collisions and in the early Universe, as well as the high-density matter predicted to be present in compact stars. The underlying thesis is that what governs hadronic properties in a heat bath and/or a dense medium is hidden local symmetry which emerges from chiral dynamics of light quark systems and from the duality between QCD in 4D and bulk gravity in 5D as in AdS/QCD. Special attention is paid to hot matter relevant for relativistic heavy ion processes and to dense matter relevant for compact stars that are either stable or on the verge of collapse into black holes.

This is the fifth volume in a series of Lecture Notes based on the highly successful Euro Summer School on Exotic Beams. The aim of these notes is to provide a thorough introduction to radioactive ion-beam physics at the level of graduate students and young postdocs starting out in the field. Each volume covers a range of topics from nuclear theory to experiment and applications. Vol I has been published as LNP 651, Vol II as LNP 700, Vol. III as LNP 764 and Vol. IV as LNP 879.

This is the sequel to the first volume to treat in one effective field theory framework the physics of strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions. This is vital for understanding the high temperature phenomena taking place in relativistic heavy ion collisions and in the early Universe, as well as the high-density matter predicted to be present in compact stars. The underlying thesis is that what governs hadronic properties in a heat bath and/or a dense medium is hidden local symmetry which emerges from chiral dynamics of light quark systems and from the duality between QCD in 4D and bulk gravity in 5D as in AdS/QCD. Special attention is paid to hot matter relevant for relativistic heavy ion processes and to dense matter relevant for compact stars that are either stable or on the verge of collapse into black holes.

This proceedings volume collected papers presented at a recent symposium on Chiral Symmetry in Hadrons and Nuclei — the seventh in a series of international symposia — with an aim of providing a platform for discussions among the experts and an overview of the present status in the hadron and nuclear physics related to the chiral symmetry.The recent past years have seen a remarkable progress towards a unified description of nonperturbative strong interaction phenomena based on the fundamental theory of the strong interaction, Quantum ChromoDynamics, and Effective Field Theories. The topics discussed in these proceedings include: chiral and heavy-quark spin symmetry; chiral dynamics of few-body hadron systems; chiral symmetry and hadrons in a nuclear medium; chiral dynamics in nucleon-nucleon interaction and atomic nuclei; chiral symmetry in rotating nuclei; hadron structure and interactions; exotic hadrons, heavy flavor hadrons and nuclei; mesonic atoms and nuclei.

Straddling the traditional disciplines of nuclear and particle physics, hadron physics is a vital and extremely active research area, as evidenced by a 2004 Nobel prize and new research facilities, such as that scheduled to open at CERN. Scientifically it is of vital importance in extrapolating our knowledge of quark-gluon physics at the sub-nucleon level to provide a wider perspective of strongly interacting hadrons, which make up the vast bulk of known matter in the Universe. Through detailed, pedagogical chapters contributed by key international experts, Hadron Physics maps out our contemporary knowledge of the subject. It covers both the theoretical and experimental aspects of hadron structure and properties along with a wide range of specific research topics, results, and applications. Providing a full picture of activity in the field, the book highlights three particular areas of current research: computational lattice hadron physics, the structure and dynamics of hadrons, and generalized parton distributions. It provides a solid introduction, includes background theory, and presents the current state of understanding of the subject.