Related papers: QCD over $T_c$: hadrons, partons and continuum
In the standard model of particle physics, the strong force is characterized by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). It is commonly understood from QCD properties that hadrons, at sufficiently high temperatures or densities, melt…
The formulation of the real and virtual photon production rate from strongly interacting matter is presented in the framework of finite temperature field theory. The changes in the hadronic spectral function induced by temperature are…
We discuss recent results on fluctuations of conserved charges, and their approach to the hadron resonance gas at temperatures below the chiral crossover (Tc) as well as to a gas of free quarks at very high temperatures. We will focus on…
In these lectures we provide an introduction to the phase structure of QCD. We begin with a brief discussion of QCD, the symmetries of QCD, and what we mean by a ``phase of QCD''. In the main part of the lectures we discuss the phase…
We simulate 3-flavour lattice QCD with a small chemical potential $\mu_I$ for isospin, at temperatures close to the finite temperature transition. Using quark masses just above the critical mass for zero chemical potential, we determine the…
The present paper concludes our investigations on the QCD cross-over transition temperatures with 2+1 staggered flavours and one-link stout improvement. We extend our previous two studies [Phys. Lett. B643 (2006) 46, JHEP 0906:088 (2009)]…
While it is commonly believed that there is a {\it direct} transition from the hadronic to a quark gluon phase at high temperature, it would be prejudicial to rule out a sequence of dynamically generated intermediate scales. Using as guide,…
Due to a rapid change of the entropy density $s(T)$ across the critical temperature $T_c$ of the QCD phase transition, the pressure $P(T)$ and the energy density $e(T)$ above $T_c$ generally deviate from their Stefan-Boltzmann values. We…
These lectures start with a brief overview of salient features of the critical region of hot QCD. The main emphasis is on the accurate description of static plasma observables by the well-known hierarchy of reduced actions combined with 3D…
The dynamics of partons, hadrons and strings in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed within the novel Parton-Hadron-String Dynamics (PHSD) transport approach, which is based on a dynamical quasiparticle model for partons…
We review some important results from the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. They were obtained in a unique environment for studying QCD bulk matter at temperatures and densities that sur- pass the limits where hadrons exist as individual entities,…
Heavy-ion collision experiments at RHIC and the LHC have found a new emergent phase of QCD, a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) that is distinctively different from either the low temperature hadron phase or the very high…
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 time-scales of rehadronization are considered for a baryon-free QGP at RHIC and LHC energies. The non-equilibrium nucleation scenario leads to mechanical instability of the supercooled QGP phase which then may be suddenly converted in a…
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…
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 analyze multiparticle production in a thermal framework for 7 central nucleus nucleus collisions, $e^+$+ $e^-$ annihilation into hadrons on the Z resonance and 4 hadronic reactions (p+p and p+$\bar{p}$ with partial centrality selec…
The double phase transition of hadronic matter, $H$, first, to the gas of deconfined constituent quarks (for brevity called {\it valons}), $Q$, and then, secondly, the phase transition from $Q$ to quark-gluon plasma, $QGP$, is considered…
The intrinsic fluctuations, memory effects and long-range color interactions in high energy nuclear collisions imply the presence of non-Markovian processes in the fireball evolution, which affects the thermalization process towards…
As the chirally restored phase ends with T coming down to T_c, a phase resembling a mixed phase is realized, during which the hadrons (which are massless at T_c in the chiral limit) get their masses back out of their kinetic energy. The…