Collision dynamics and particle production in relativistic nucleus- nucleus collisions at CERN

Conference · Thu Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:7001660

Harris, J W

The possibility of forming a quark-gluon plasma is the primary motivation for studying nucleus-nucleus collisions at very high energies. Various signatures'' for the existence of a quark-gluon plasma in these collisions have been proposed. These include an enhancement in the production of strange particles, suppression of J/{Psi} production, observation of direct photons from the plasma, event-by-event fluctuations in the rapidity distributions of produced particles, and various other observables. However, the system will evolve dynamically from a pure plasma or mixed phase through expansion, cooling, hadronization and freezeout into the final state particles. Therefore, to be able to determine that a new, transient state of matter has been formed it will be necessary to understand the space-time evolution of the collision process and the microscopic structure of hadronic interactions, at the level of quarks and gluons, at high temperatures and densities. In this talk I will review briefly the present state of our understanding of the dynamics of these collisions and, in addition, present a few recent results on particle production from the NA35 experiment at CERN. 21 refs., 5 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/ER
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 7001660
• Report Number(s): LBL-28838; CONF-900295--4; ON: DE90011604
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645000 -- High Energy Physics
651000* -- Nuclear Physics
653003 -- Nuclear Theory-- Nuclear Reactions & Scattering
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
BOSONS
CHARGED-PARTICLE REACTIONS
CHARMONIUM
CROSS SECTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
HADRONS
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
INTERACTIONS
J PSI-3097 MESONS
LINEAR MOMENTUM
MESONS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE PRODUCTION
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PARTICLE RAPIDITY
QUARK-GLUON INTERACTIONS
QUARKONIUM
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
SPACE-TIME
STOPPING POWER
STRANGE PARTICLES
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM
VECTOR MESONS