Hunting down the Quark-gluon Plasma in Relativistic Heavy-ion Collisions

The present status of the heavy-ion program to search for quark-gluon plasma is reviewed. The goal of this program is to recreate the Big Bang in the laboratory, by generating small chunks of exploding quark-gluon plasma (“The Little Bang”). I argue that the analogues of the three pillars of Big Bang Theory (Hubble flow, microwave background radiation, and primordial nucleosynthesis) have now been firmly established in heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies: there is convincing evidence for strong radial flow, thermal hadron emission, and primordial hadrosynthesis from a color-deconfined initial stage. Direct observation of the quark-gluon plasma phase via its electromagnetic radiation will be possible in planned collider experiments at higher energies.