Abstract:

I review recent theoretical developments which show how a key qualitative feature of the QCD phase diagram, namely a critical point which in a sense defines the landscape to be mapped in heavy ion collision experiments, can be discovered. I also review recent progress in our understanding of cold, dense quark matter, as may occur in the cores of neutron stars. In this regime, quarks form Cooper pairs and QCD describes a superconducting phase which may break chiral symmetry by locking flavor symmetries to color. Mapping this part of the QCD phase diagram will require a better understanding of how these phenomena affect neutron star phenomenology.