|
Physical Society Colloquium
Sangyong Jeon McGill University Recent experimental results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider continues to provide tantalizing glimpses of the long-sought Quark-Gluon Plasma. Colliding Gold ions at a total center of mass energy of 40 TeV, RHIC achieves energy density and temperature never seen in nature since a few microseconds after the Big Bang. The temperatures so achieved are believed to be high enough to free the quarks and gluons from the confines of the hadrons to form a Quark-Gluon Plasma. To detect the presence of this new state of matter, we need evidence for high temperature and energy density and/or evidence for free quarks and gluons and/or evidence for a phase transition. In this talk, I will summarize what has been observed so far and how to interpret it.
Friday, September 21st 2001, 15:30 |