What invariant one-particle multiplicity distributions and two-particle correlations are telling us about relativistic heavy-ion collisions

摘要

Many of you are vigorously searching for the quark-gluon plasma--a predicted new phase of nuclear matter where quarks roam almost freely throughout the medium instead of being confined to individual nucleons.~1,2 Such a plasma is believed to have existed in the first 10 mus of the universe during the big bang and could be produced in the laboratory during the little bang of a relativistic hevy-ion collision.