1. Relativistic heavy ion collisions
wan ahmad tajuddin wan abdullah
jabatan fizik universiti malaya

2. Hot dense nuclear matter
Quark-gluon plasma
Hot dense nuclear matter

3. CERN
17 GeV/ nucleon Pb
LBL
1-2 GeV/ nucleon
JINR
6 GeV/ nucleon
BNL
BNL
200 GeV/ nucleon pair
Cu, Au, U
CERN
2.76 TeV/ nucleon pair Pb

4. why condition in first microseconds in hot Big Bang
QCD state at high temperatures
Hadronization
(~ confinement)

5. Typical temperature range –
T = 300 MeV/k = 3.3 x 1012 K
10,000 x greater than in center of Sun
Corresponding energy density –
e =10 GeV/ fm3
Corresponding relativistic matter pressure –
P ≈ e/3 = 0.52 x 1031 bar

6. Strangeness enhancement
high temperature
→ strangeness enhanced
Statistics:
particle ratios → Tch , mB
at chemical freezeout
Experimental: 160 MeV < Tch < 180 MeV
cf. expected QCD phase transition value ~170 MeV
(lattice QCD calculations)

7. Heavy quarkonium suppression
hot and deconfined medium – quarkonia (cf naked flavours) expected to “melt”

8. Jet quenching images courtesy CERN
coloured particles damped in coloured media

9. Elliptic flow
Collective anisotropy thermalization, hydrodynamics liquid-like

10. Colour glass condensate
BFKL dynamics – saturation at Q2s ~ <Npart>/2 expect nch/A ~ 1/as(Q2s)