Toward understanding the lattice QCD results from the strong coupling analysis

This is a review of strong coupling approaches to grasp the nature of the phase transition in finite temperature and density QCD. We commence with classics of the center symmetry and the Polyakov loop in pure gauge theories. The effective action derived in the strong coupling limit gives qualitatively plausible behavior for the deconfinement transition at finite temperature. We can apply the strong coupling analysis to describe the chiral phase transition with the help of large dimensional expansion. In order to make this article as self-contained as possible, we elucidate the computational procedure and its physical meaning in detail. Also the relation between the Polyakov loop behavior and the chiral dynamics, the phase structure of two-color QCD, and future possibilities to be pursued in the strong coupling analysis are discussed. (author)