QCD at finite density

Abstract

Abstract A brief review of the status of lattice QCD at finite density is presented. The failure of the quenched approximation and the problems associated with the complex nature of the fermion action in standard Monte-Carlo simulations are reviewed. The expansion of the Grand Canonical Partition Function in terms of its constituent canonical partition functions at fixed quark number is introduced and its usefulness in numerical simulation discussed. The possibility of extracting the phase structure of the system via an analysis of its Lee-Yang zeros in the complex fugacity plane is considered.