The purpose of this volume is to trace the development of the
theoretical understanding of quark-gluon plasma, both in terms of the
equation of state and thermal correlation functions and in terms of
its manifestation in high energy nuclear collisions. Who among us has
not wondered how tall a mountain is on a neutron star, what happens
when matter is heated and compressed to higher and higher densities,
what happens when an object falls into a black hole, or what happened
eons ago in the early universe? The study of quark-gluon plasma is
related in one way or...

This text introduces a rapidly growing new research area - the study of dynamical properties of elementary fields. The methods used in this field range from algebraic topology to parallel computer programming. The main aim of this research is to understand the behaviour of elementary particles and fields under extreme circumstances, first of all at high temperature and energy density generated in the largest accelerators of the world and supposed to be present in the early evolution of our universe shortly after the Big Bang. In particular, chaos is rediscovered in a new appearance in these...