Related papers: Shape analysis of strongly-interacting systems: th…
It has been theorized that if heavy nuclei (e.g. Au, Pb) are collided at sufficiently high energies, we might be to recreate the conditions that existed in the universe a few microseconds after the Big Bang. The kinetic energy of the…
By measuring hadronic single-particle spectra and two-particle correlations in heavy-ion collisions, the size and dynamical state of the collision fireball at freeze-out can be reconstructed. I discuss the relevant theoretical methods and…
This work establishes a deep connection between two seemingly distant branches of nuclear physics: nuclear structure and relativistic heavy-ion collisions. At the heart of this connection is the recent discovery made at particle colliders…
There are strong indications that ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions, produced in accelarators, lead to the formation of a new state of matter: the quark gluon plasma (QGP). This deconfined QCD matter is expected to exist just for very…
We suggest that the ultrarelativistic collisions of heavy ions provide the simplest situation for the study of strong interactions which can be understood from first principles and without any model assumptions about the microscopic…
High-energy heavy-ion collisions provide a unique opportunity to study the properties of the hot and dense strongly-interacting system composed of deconfined quarks and gluons -- the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) -- in laboratory conditions. The…
I discuss the phase structure of strongly interacting matter at high temperatures and densities, as predicted by statistical QCD, and consider in particular the nature of the transition of hot hadronic matter to a plasma of deconfined…
By measuring hadronic single-particle spectra and two-particle correlations in heavy-ion collisions, the size and dynamical state of the collision fireball at freeze-out can be reconstructed. I discuss the relevant theoretical methods and…
This study employs the isospin-dependent Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck model to simulate intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions between prolate nuclei $^{24}$Mg. The emphasis is on investigating the influence of centrality and orientation…
QCD predicts that strongly interacting matter will undergo a transition from a state of hadronic constituents to a plasma of unbound quarks and gluons. We first survey the conceptual features of this transition and its description in finite…
The ultimate aim of high energy heavy ion collisions is to study quark deconfinement and the quark-gluon plasma predicted by quantum chromodynamics. This requires the identification of observables calculable in QCD and measurable in heavy…
We point out what we may learn from the investigation of identical two-particle interferometry in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions if we assume a particular model scenario by the formation of a thermalized quark-gluon plasma…
At high temperatures or densities matter formed by strongly interacting elementary particles (hadronic matter) is expected to undergo a transition to a new form of matter - the quark gluon plasma - in which elementary particles (quarks and…
The space-time structure of the multipion system created in central relativistic heavy-ion collisions is investigated. Using the microscopic transport model UrQMD we determine the freeze-out hypersurface from equation on pion density…
Recent experiments on pion correlations, interpreted as interferometric measurements of the collision zone, are compared with models that distinguish a prehadronic phase and a hadronic phase. The models include prehadronic longitudinal…
At high temperatures, strongly interacting matter becomes a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons. In statistical QCD, deconfinement and the properties of the resulting quark-gluon plasma can be investigated by studying the in-medium…
While the existence of a strongly interacting state of matter, known as 'quark-gluon plasma' (QGP), has been established in heavy ion collision experiments in the past decade, the task remains to map out the transition from the hadronic…
The analysis of the spatiotemporal picture of particle radiation in relativistic heavy-ion collisions in terms of correlation femtoscopy scales, emission and source functions allows one to probe the character of evolution of the system…
In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions the produced high temperature, high energy density state will cross different phases of the strongly interacting matter. The original idea of quark-gluon plasma formation has been evolved and the…
I present the motivation for studying nuclear collisions at ultrarelativistic energies which is to map the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter under very extreme conditions. The relevant experimental efforts are overviewed and…