Nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: A review

作者：Ollitrault Jean Yves^*

来源：Pramana - Journal of Physics, 2006, 67(5): 899-914.

DOI：10.1007/s12043-006-0101-2

• heavy-ion collisions
• quark-gluon plasma

On April 18, 2005, a press release announced that a new state of matter had been discovered in ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at the. relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) on Long Island, New York: not a gas of weakly interacting quarks and gluons as earlier expected, but something more like a liquid of strongly interacting quarks and gluons, with an extremely low viscosity. This claim was based on a consensus interpretation of experimental data by the four large detector groups, BRAHMS, PHENIX, PHOBOS and STAR [1].
In this talk, selected highlights from the RHIC programme are presented, with special emphasis on the most recent results, and on the developments which led to the press release. While significant discoveries have definitely been made at RHIC, I argue that a critical reassessement of the 'perfect liquid' scenario is necessary.

• 出版日期2006-11
• 单位中国地震局