Full Description
This open-access book celebrates fifty years of the quest to understand quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a form of extremely hot and dense matter that existed in the first microseconds after the Big Bang and may still play a role today in the interiors of neutron stars. Over the past decades, scientists have developed the capability to recreate this extreme state of matter under laboratory conditions through high-energy collisions of heavy atomic nuclei in powerful particle accelerators. These experiments probe the fundamental predictions of quantum chromodynamics - the theory of the strong interaction that binds quarks and gluons into protons, neutrons, and ultimately all atomic nuclei.
The book comprises two parts. The first presents personal reflections by some of the leading scientists who have shaped the field since its early years. The second offers topical reviews that trace the evolution of both theoretical understanding and experimental programs aimed at identifying and characterizing QGP signatures. It provides historical reviews of developments in experimental programs at leading laboratories worldwide, including Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, while highlighting future directions in experimental programs at major laboratories.
Overall, this volume takes readers on a reflective and commemorative journey through five decades of progress in the study of quark-gluon plasma: from its theoretical conceptualization to detailed investigations at dedicated experimental facilities, while offering a forward-looking view of this dynamic area of modern physics.
Contents
Early Developments in the Theory of Ultra relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions: Personal Observations.- From Fireballs to Finite Temperature QCD: A Personal Recollection.- Strongly Interacting Matter: Some Personal Recollections.- Thermodynamics of strong interaction matter from Lattice QCD: The early days.- 50 years of a quest for Quark Gluon Plasma.- BEVALAC: How relativistic Heavy Ion Physics started.- Let's go back to the beginning: personal memories.- The Schism and Reunion between Particle and Nuclear Physics.- QGP Studies in India: A Legacy of Bikash Sinha.- My Path to the Quark Gluon Plasma.- The Early History of the Quark Gluon Plasma.- What is the Quark Gluon Plasma made of?.- The phase boundary of Quark Gluon Plasma from lattice simulations.- Hydrodynamic Description of the Quark Gluon Plasma.- The quark gluon plasma: thermal hadron production from the early history until detailed characterization at high energy colliders.- Electromagnetic Radiation from High Energy Nuclear Collisions.- Quark Recombination.- Parton energy loss: from Bjorken to jet substructure.- Do neutron stars have quark matter cores?.- Quark Gluon Plasma and the missing piece of cosmic ray atmospheric air showers.- Experiments at the CERN SPS: first signals of deconfinement.- RHIC Program, Its Origin and Early Results.- Experiments at the CERN LHC: exploring the quark gluon plasma.- Future facilities for quark gluon plasma studies.
