https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2006-10240-4
QNP 2006
Latest results on the hot dense partonic matter at RHIC
Los Alamos National Laboratory, 87545, Los Alamos, NM, USA
* e-mail: leitch@bnl.gov
Received:
8
November
2006
Accepted:
15
November
2006
Published online:
9
March
2007
At the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) collisions of heavy ions at nucleon-nucleon energies of 200GeV appear to have created a new form of matter thought to be a deconfined state of the partons that ordinarily are bound in nucleons. We discuss the evidence that a thermalized partonic medium, usually called a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), has been produced. Then, we discuss the effect of this high-density medium on the production of jets and their pair correlations. Next, we look at direct photons as a clean electro-magnetic probe to constrain the initial hard scatterings. Finally, we review the developing picture for the effect of this medium on the production of open heavy quarks and on the screening by the QGP of heavy-quark bound states.
PACS: 25.75.-q Relativistic heavy-ion collisions – / 24.85.+p Quarks, gluons, and QCD in nuclei and nuclear processes –
© Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2007
