Advances in perturbative thermal field theory

TL;DR: The progress in the last decade in perturbative quantum field theory at high temperatures and densities, made possible by the use of effective field theories and hard thermal/dense loop resummations in ultrarelativistic gauge theories, is reviewed in this paper.

Abstract: The progress in the last decade in perturbative quantum field theory at high temperatures and densities, made possible by the use of effective field theories and hard thermal/dense loop resummations in ultrarelativistic gauge theories, is reviewed. The relevant methods are discussed in field theoretical models from simple scalar theories to non-Abelian gauge theories including gravity. In the simpler models, the aim is to give a pedagogical account of some of the relevant problems and their resolution, while in the more complicated but also more interesting models such as quantum chromodynamics, a summary of the results obtained so far is given together with references to a few of the most recent developments and open problems.