EXPERIMENTAL OVERVIEW OF HEAVY-ION PHYSICS AT THE SPS AND RHIC

摘要

QCD predicts that at a certain critical temperature of the order of KQCD I strongly interacting matter undergoes a phase transition from the colour singlet hadronic state to a deconfined plasma of quarks and gluons. This review summarizes experimental observables that support the evidence that a new state of matter with properties as predicted for the QGP was observed at the CER.N SPS as well as novel experimental probes accessible at the RHIC heavy-ion collider at BNL.