Hot dense matter

The equation of state of hot dense matter is an essential ingredient for the calculations of heavy ion hydrodynamical models and for the study of many astrophysical phenomena. The equation of state is calculated for hot dense neutron, nuclear and stellar matter (including muons) for wide range of densities and temperatures. Nuclear interactions have been included in all possible channels using the experimental phase-shifts thus avoiding the ambiguities of the phenomenological interactions. This equation of state is used to calculate the adiabatic index of stellar matter for densities 109 <=rho(gms/cm3) <--1014 and temperatures 20 <=T(MeV) <=45 in order to explore the possibility of stellar collapse being halted at subnuclear densities. The equation of state for nuclear matter at higher temperatures and densities is used to study the shock waves in dense excited nuclear matter formed in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions and the results are discussed. (author)