Towards the quark-gluon plasma

Towards the Quark-Gluon Plasma

We discuss recent experimental results in the field of ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions. The emerging “picture” is a collectively expanding, initially hot and dense fireball in which strangenessand low-mass di-lepton pair production are enhanced and J/Ψ production is suppressed compared to expectations from nucleon-nucleon collisions. It is argued that, taken together, these data provide c...

Towards the Quark-Gluon-Plasma

Theoretical overview: towards understanding the quark-gluon plasma

I give a brief overview of recent theoretical developments concerning the high temperature phase of QCD, and the structure of hadronic wave functions at high energy. 1. From the “ideal gas” to the “perfect liquid” The study of ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions offers the possibility to address several fundamental questions, concerning for instance the state of matter at very high temperat...

signal the quark gluon plasma ?

We first review the production and the possible chemical equilibration of strange particles at CERN-SPS energies within a microscopic hadronic transport calculation. It is shown in particular that the strange quarks are produced initially via string excitations in the primary, secondary and ternary interactions. We then further elaborate on a recent idea of antihyperon production by multi-meson...

The Quark-Gluon-Plasma Liquid

The quark-gluon plasma close to the critical temperature is a strongly interacting system. Using strongly coupled, classical, non-relativistic plasmas as an analogy, we argue that the quark-gluon plasma is in the liquid phase. This allows to understand experimental observations in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions and to interpret lattice QCD results. It also supports the indications of th...