Introduction to High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions

Written primarily for researchers and graduate students who are new in this emerging field, this book develops the necessary tools so that readers can follow the latest advances in this subject. Readers are first guided to examine the basic informations on nucleon–nucleon collisions and the use of the nucleus as an arena to study the interaction of one nucleon with another. A good survey of the relation between nucleon–nucleon and nucleus–nucleus collisions provides the proper comparison to study phenomena involving the more exotic quark-gluon plasma. Properties of the quark-gluon plasma and signatures for its detection are discussed to aid future searches and exploration for this exotic matter. Recent experimental findings are summarised. Contents:IntroductionKinematic VariablesNucleon–Nucleon CollisionsHard Processes in Nucleon–Nucleon CollisionsParticle Production in a Strong FieldParticle Production in Two-Dimensional Quantum ElectrodynamicsClassical String ModelDual Parton ModelQuarks, Gluons, and Quark–Gluon PlasmaLattice Gauge TheoryResults from Lattice Gauge TheoryNucleus–Nucleus CollisionsHigh-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions and Quark-Gluon PlasmaSignatures for the Quark–Gluon Plasma (I – V)SummaryIndex Readership: Nuclear physicists. Keywords:High-Energy;Heavy-Ion;High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions;Quark-Gluon Plasma;Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions;High-Energy Nuclear CollisionsReview: “The book is very well written and I can recommend it to all graduate students and researchers interested in the field of RHICs.” Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics