Skip to main content
We gratefully acknowledge support from the Simons Foundation, member institutions, and all contributors. Donate
arXiv logo
Cornell University Logo

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

arXiv:1802.04801 (hep-ph)
[Submitted on 13 Feb 2018 (v1), last revised 23 Feb 2018 (this version, v2)]

Title:Heavy Ion Collisions: The Big Picture, and the Big Questions

Authors:Wit Busza, Krishna Rajagopal, Wilke van der Schee
View PDF
Abstract:Heavy ion collisions quickly form a droplet of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) with a remarkably small viscosity. We give an accessible introduction to how to study this smallest and hottest droplet of liquid made on earth and why it is so interesting. The physics of heavy ions ranges from highly energetic quarks and gluons described by perturbative QCD to a bath of strongly interacting gluons at lower energy scales. These gluons quickly thermalize and form QGP, while the energetic partons traverse this plasma and end in a shower of particles called jets. Analyzing the final particles in a variety of different ways allows us to study the properties of QGP and the complex dynamics of multi-scale processes in QCD which govern its formation and evolution, providing what is perhaps the simplest form of complex quantum matter that we know of. Much remains to be understood, and throughout the review big open questions will be encountered.
Comments: 49 pages, 9 figures. Invited review prepared for Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science 68 (2018)
Subjects: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th); Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex); Nuclear Theory (nucl-th)
Report number: MIT-CTP/4892
Cite as: arXiv:1802.04801 [hep-ph]
  (or arXiv:1802.04801v2 [hep-ph] for this version)
  https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1802.04801
Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nucl-101917-020852

Submission history

From: Wilke van der Schee [view email]
[v1] Tue, 13 Feb 2018 19:00:00 UTC (3,850 KB)
[v2] Fri, 23 Feb 2018 09:27:32 UTC (3,851 KB)
Full-text links:

Access Paper:

  • View PDF
  • TeX Source
  • Other Formats
view license
Current browse context:
hep-ph
< prev   |   next >
new | recent | 2018-02
Change to browse by:
hep-th
nucl-ex
nucl-th

References & Citations

export BibTeX citation

Bookmark

BibSonomy logo Reddit logo

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)

Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article

alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?)
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)

Demos

Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)

Recommenders and Search Tools

Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
IArxiv Recommender (What is IArxiv?)

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.

Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)