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Matter in extremis: ultrarelativistic nuclear collisions at RHIC
- Source :
-
Progress in Particle & Nuclear Physics . Apr2005, Vol. 54 Issue 2, p443-534. 92p. - Publication Year :
- 2005
-
Abstract
- Abstract: 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 provide several lines of evidence that a novel state of matter has been created in the most violent, head-on collisions of Au nuclei at GeV. Jet quenching and global measurements show that the initial energy density of the strongly interacting medium generated in the collision is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of cold nuclear matter, well above the critical density for the deconfinement phase transition predicted by lattice QCD. The observed collective flow patterns imply that the system thermalizes early in its evolution, with the dynamics of its expansion consistent with ideal hydrodynamic flow based on a quark–gluon plasma equation of state. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 01466410
- Volume :
- 54
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Progress in Particle & Nuclear Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 17343630
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppnp.2004.09.001