Written primarily for researchers and graduate students who are new in this emerging field, this book develops the necessary tools so that readers can follow the latest advances in this subject. Readers are first guided to examine the basic informations on nucleon-nucleon collisions and the use of the nucleus as an arena to study the interaction of one nucleon with another. A good survey of the relation between nucleon-nucleon and nucleus-nucleus collisions provides the proper comparison to study phenomena involving the more exotic quark-gluon plasma. Properties of the quark-gluon plasma and signatures for its detection are discussed to aid future searches and exploration for this exotic matter. Recent experimental findings are summarised.

An accelerating convergence of interests of particle physics and modern experimental and theoretical astrophysics has been witnessed in the past few years. One of the focal points is the observation and phenomenological characterization of Dark Matter from Galactic to the large scale structure of the Universe. Particle physics provides detailed predictions for the cosmological impact of various dark matter candidates. The other central subjects are neutrino astronomy and cosmic ray reactions which provide valuable information both on stellar structure (solar neutrinos) and on the nature of extreme high energy particle interactions. The lectures presented here represent important new contributions to all these fields.