Related papers: The phases of strongly interacting matter in heavy…
We analyze the possibilities for studying properties of dense QCD-matter, created in ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions, by hard QCD-production processes, so-called "hard" probes -- heavy quarkonia, hard jets, high mass dimuons. Special…
We review the physics of nuclear matter at high energy density and the experimental search for the Quark-Gluon Plasma at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The data obtained in the first three years of the RHIC physics program…
At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) collisions of heavy ions at nucleon-nucleon energies of 200 GeV appear to have created a new form of matter thought to be a deconfined state of the partons that ordinarily are bound in…
We study the evolution of the quark-gluon composition of the plasma created in ultra-Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions (uRHIC's) employing a partonic transport theory that includes both elastic and inelastic collisions plus a mean fields…
A strongly interacting Quark-Gluon Plasma (sQGP) is created in the high energy heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. Our present understanding of sQGP as a very good liquid with astonishingly low viscosity is reviewed. With the arrival of…
Central nuclear collisions at energies far above 1 GeV/nucleon may provide for conditions, where the transition from highly excited hadronic matter into quark matter or quark-gluon plasma can be probed. Here I review our current…
Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions, predicts a transition of the usual matter to a new phase of matter, called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), at sufficiently high temperatures. The non-perturbative technique of…
The quark-gluon plasma, which is produced at an early stage of ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, is expected to be initially strongly populated with chromodynamic fields. We address the question how heavy quarks interact with such a…
In central collisions at relativistic heavy ion colliders like the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider RHIC/Brookhaven and the Large Hadron Collider LHC (in its heavy ion mode) at CERN/Geneva, one aims at detecting a new form of hadronic matter…
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…
Collisions of heavy ions (nuclei) at ultra-relativistic energies (sqrt(s_NN) >> 10 GeV per nucleon-nucleon collision in the centre of mass system) are regarded as a unique tool to produce in the laboratory a high energy density and high…
These lectures provide a modern introduction to selected topics in the physics of ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions which shed light on the fundamental theory of strong interactions, the Quantum Chromodynamics. The emphasis is on the…
Nonperturbative picture of strong interacting quark-gluon plasma is given based on the systematic Field Correlator Method. Equation of state, phase transition in density-temperature plane is derived and compared to lattice data as well as…
It is believed that a novel state of matter - Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) will be transiently produced if normal hadronic matter is subjected to sufficiently high temperature and/or density. We have investigated the possibility of QGP…
Some physical aspects of the ALICE experiment at the LHC are considered with emphasis on possible probes of quark-gluon plasma, created in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions.
In relativistic heavy ion collisions, after the quark gluon plasma (QGP) phase there is a hadron gas (HG) phase. In both phases $J/\psi$ may be formed and destroyed. In this note we study the $J/\psi$ interactions with other mesons in the…
In high-energy nuclear collisions, the new phase of the quark-gluon plasma is indicated by an anomalous increase in pressure, an excess of direct photon production, an excess of strangeness production, and an anomalous J/psi suppression. We…
In the last 20 years, heavy-ion collisions have been a unique way to study the hadronic matter in the laboratory. Its phase diagram remains unknown, although many experimental and theoretical studies have been undertaken in the last…
A full understanding of the spacetime evolution of the QCD matter created in a heavy ion collision requires understanding the properties of the initial stages. In the weak coupling picture these are dominated by classical gluon fields,…
Heavy ion collisions quickly form a droplet of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) with a remarkably small viscosity. We give an accessible introduction to how to study this smallest and hottest droplet of liquid made on earth and why it is so…