We review the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) approach to the dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). After a general overview of the non-perturbative aspects of QCD, we introduce the NJL model as a low-energy effective theory of QCD. The collective nature of hadrons and the constituent quark model are treated in a unified way. Various aspects of QCD related to the dynamical and explicit breaking of chiral symmetry and the axial anomaly can be well described. The subjects treated in Part I include the vacuum structure of QCD, mass spectra and coupling constants of hadrons, flavor mixing in mesons, the violation of the OZI rule in baryons, and the validity of the chiral perturbation in QCD. A subtle interplay between the axial anomaly and the current-quark masses is shown to play important roles, and a realistic evaluation of the strangeness and heavy quark contents of hadrons is given. Also the problem of elusive scalar mesons is studied in detail. For a pedagogical reason, we first present an account of basic ingredients and detailed technical aspects of the NJL model using simple versions of it.In Part II, the NJL model is applied to the system at finite temperature (T ) and density (ρ) relevant to the early universe, interior of the neutron stars and the ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. After a brief introduction of the field theory at finite temperature, phenomena associated with the restoration of chiral symmetry in the medium are examined. The subjects treated here include the quark condensates in the medium, meson properties at finite T (ρ) and their experimental implications. A special attention is paid to fluctuation phenomena near the critical temperature, i.e., possible existence of soft modes in the scalar channel and a jump of the quark-number susceptibility in the vector channel.to be published in Physics Reports

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Abstract. Current status of theoretical researches on the QCD phase diagram at finite temperature and baryon chemical potential is reviewed with special emphasis on the origin of various phases and their symmetry breaking patterns. Topics include; quark deconfinement, chiral symmetry restoration, order of the phase transitions, QCD critical point(s), colour superconductivity, various inhomogeneous states and implications from QCD-like theories.

The nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential is studied by lattice QCD simulations in the quenched approximation, using the plaquette gauge action and the Wilson quark action on a 32(4) [approximately (4.4 fm)(4)] lattice. A NN potential V(NN)(r) is defined from the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter amplitude with a local interpolating operator for the nucleon. By studying the NN interaction in the (1)S(0) and (3)S(1) channels, we show that the central part of V(NN)(r) has a strong repulsive core of a few hundred MeV at short distances (r approximately < 0.5 fm) surrounded by an attractive well at medium and long distances. These features are consistent with the known phenomenological features of the nuclear force.

Analyzing correlation functions of charmonia at finite temperature (T ) on 32 3 ×(32−96) anisotropic lattices by the maximum entropy method (MEM), we find that J/ψ and ηc survive as distinct resonances in the plasma even up to T ≃ 1.6Tc and that they eventually dissociate between 1.6Tc and 1.9Tc (Tc is the critical temperature of deconfinement). This suggests that the deconfined plasma is non-perturbative enough to hold heavy-quark bound states. The importance of having sufficient number of temporal data points in MEM analyses is also emphasized.