Experimental and theoretical challenges in the search for the quark-gluon plasma: The STAR Collaboration's critical assessment of the evidence from RHIC collisions Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We review the most important experimental results from the first three years of nucleus-nucleus collision studies at RHIC, with emphasis on results from the STAR experiment, and we assess their interpretation and comparison to theory. The theory-experiment comparison suggests that central Au + Au collisions at RHIC produce dense, rapidly thermalizing matter characterized by: (1) initial energy densities above the critical values predicted by lattice QCD for establishment of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP); (2) nearly ideal fluid flow, marked by constituent interactions of very short mean free path, established most probably at a stage preceding hadron formation; and (3) opacity to jets. Many of the observations are consistent with models incorporating QGP formation in the early collision stages, and have not found ready explanation in a hadronic framework. However, the measurements themselves do not yet establish unequivocal evidence for a transition to this new form of matter. The theoretical treatment of the collision evolution, despite impressive successes, invokes a suite of distinct models, degrees of freedom and assumptions of as yet unknown quantitative consequence. We pose a set of important open questions, and suggest additional measurements, at least some of which should be addressed in order to establish a compelling basis to conclude definitively that thermalized, deconfined quark-gluon matter has been produced at RHIC. 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

published proceedings

  • NUCLEAR PHYSICS A

altmetric score

  • 11.1

author list (cited authors)

  • Adams, J., Aggarwal, M. M., Ahammed, Z., Amonett, J., Anderson, B. D., Arkhipkin, D., ... Zubarev, A. N.

citation count

  • 2375

complete list of authors

  • Adams, J||Aggarwal, MM||Ahammed, Z||Amonett, J||Anderson, BD||Arkhipkin, D||Averichev, GS||Badyal, SK||Bai, Y||Balewski, J||Barannikova, O||Barnby, LS||Baudot, J||Bekele, S||Belaga, VV||Bellingeri-Laurikainen, A||Bellwied, R||Berger, J||Bezverkhny, BI||Bharadwaj, S||Bhasin, A||Bhati, AK||Bhatia, VS||Bichsel, H||Bielcik, J||Bielcikova, J||Billmeier, A||Bland, LC||Blyth, CO||Bonner, BE||Botje, M||Boucham, A||Bouchet, J||Brandin, AV||Bravar, A||Bystersky, M||Cadman, RV||Cai, XZ||Caines, H||Sanchez, MCD||Castillo, J||Catu, O||Cebra, D||Chajecki, Z||Chaloupka, P||Chattopadhyay, S||Chen, HF||Chen, Y||Cheng, J||Cherney, M||Chikanian, A||Christie, W||Coffin, JP||Cormier, TM||Cramer, JG||Crawford, HJ||Das, D||Das, S||de Moura, MM||Dedovich, TG||Derevschikov, AA||Didenko, L||Dietel, T||Dogra, SM||Dong, WJ||Dong, X||Draper, JE||Du, F||Dubey, AK||Dunin, VB||Dunlop, JC||Mazumdar, MRD||Eckardt, V||Edwards, WR||Efimov, LG||Emelianov, V||Engelage, J||Eppley, G||Erazmus, B||Estienne, M||Fachini, P||Faivre, J||Fatemi, R||Fedorisin, J||Filimonov, K||Filip, P||Finch, E||Fine, V||Fisyak, Y||Fu, J||Gagliardi, CA||Gaillard, L||Gans, J||Ganti, MS||Geurts, F||Ghazikhanian, V||Ghosh, P||Gonzalez, JE||Gos, H||Grachov, O||Grebenyuk, O||Grosnick, D||Guertin, SM||Guo, Y||Gupta, A||Gutierrez, TD||Hallman, TJ||Hamed, A||Hardtke, D||Harris, JW||Heinz, M||Henry, TW||Hepplemann, S||Hippolyte, B||Hirsch, A||Hjort, E||Hoffmann, GW||Huang, HZ||Huang, SL||Hughes, EW||Humanic, TJ||Igo, G||Ishihara, A||Jacobs, P||Jacobs, WW||Jedynak, M||Jiang, H||Jones, PG||Judd, EG||Kabana, S||Kang, K||Kaplan, M||Keane, D||Kechechyan, A||Khodyrev, VY||Kiryluk, J||Kisiel, A||Kislov, EM||Klay, J||Klein, SR||Koetke, DD||Kollegger, T||Kopytine, M||Kotchenda, L||Kramer, M||Kravtsov, P||Kravtsov, VI||Krueger, K||Kuhn, C||Kulikov, AI||Kumar, A||Kutuev, RK||Kuznetsov, AA||Lamont, MAC||Landgraf, JM||Lange, S||Laue, F||Lauret, J||Lebedev, A||Lednicky, R||Lehocka, S||LeVine, MJ||Li, C||Li, Q||Li, Y||Lin, G||Lindenbaum, SJ||Lisa, MA||Liu, F||Liu, H||Liu, L||Liu, QJ||Liu, Z||Ljubicic, T||Llope, WJ||Long, H||Longacre, RS||Lopez-Noriega, M||Love, WA||Lu, Y||Ludlam, T||Lynn, D||Ma, GL||Ma, JG||Ma, YG||Magestro, D||Mahajan, S||Mahapatra, DP||Majka, R||Mangotra, LK||Manweiler, R||Margetis, S||Markert, C||Martin, L||Marx, JN||Matis, HS||Matulenko, YA||McClain, CJ||McShane, TS||Meissner, F||Melnick, Y||Meschanin, A||Miller, ML||Minaev, NG||Mironov, C||Mischke, A||Mishra, DK||Mitchell, J||Mohanty, B||Molnar, L||Moore, CF||Morozov, DA||Munhoz, MG||Nandi, BK||Nayak, SK||Nayak, TK||Nelson, JM||Netrakanti, PK||Nikitin, VA||Nogach, LV||Nurushev, SB||Odyniec, G||Ogawa, A||Okorokov, V||Oldenburg, M||Olson, D||Pal, SK||Panebratsev, Y||Panitkin, SY||Pavlinov, AI||Pawlak, T||Peitzmann, T||Perevoztchikov, V||Perkins, C||Peryt, W||Petrov, VA||Phatak, SC||Picha, R||Planinic, M||Pluta, J||Porile, N||Porter, J||Poskanzer, AM||Potekhin, M||Potrebenikova, E||Potukuchi, BVKS||Prindle, D||Pruneau, C||Putschke, J||Rakness, G||Raniwala, R||Raniwala, S||Ravel, O||Ray, RL||Razin, SV||Reichhold, D||Reid, JG||Reinnarth, J||Renault, G||Retiere, F||Ridiger, A||Ritter, HG||Roberts, JB||Rogachevskiy, OV||Romero, JL||Rose, A||Roy, C||Ruan, L||Russcher, M||Sahoo, R||Sakrejda, I||Salur, S||Sandweiss, J||Sarsour, M||Savin, I||Sazhin, PS||Schambach, J||Scharenberg, RP||Schmitz, N||Seger, J||Seyboth, P||Shahaliev, E||Shao, M||Shao, W||Sharma, M||Shen, WQ||Shestermanov, KE||Shimanskiy, SS||Sichtermann, E||Simon, F||Singaraju, RN||Smirnov, N||Snellings, R||Sood, G||Sorensen, P||Sowinski, J||Speltz, J||Spinka, HM||Srivastava, B||Stadnik, A||Stanislaus, TDS||Stock, R||Stolpovsky, A||Strikhanov, M||Stringfellow, B||Suaide, AAP||Sugarbaker, E||Suire, C||Sumbera, M||Surrow, B||Swanger, M||Symons, TJM||de Toledo, AS||Tai, A||Takahashi, J||Tang, AH||Tarnowsky, T||Thein, D||Thomas, JH||Timoshenko, S||Tokarev, M||Trentalange, S||Tribble, RE||Tsai, OD||Ulery, J||Ullrich, T||Underwood, DG||Van Buren, G||van Leeuwen, M||Vander Molen, AM||Varma, R||Vasilevski, IM||Vasiliev, AN||Vernet, R||Vigdor, SE||Viyogi, YP||Vokal, S||Voloshin, SA||Waggoner, WT||Wang, F||Wang, G||Wang, G||Wang, XL||Wang, Y||Wang, Y||Wang, ZM||Ward, H||Watson, JW||Webb, JC||Westfall, GD||Wetzler, A||Whitten, C||Wieman, H||Wissink, SW||Witt, R||Wood, J||Wu, J||Xu, N||Xu, Z||Xu, ZZ||Yamamoto, E||Yepes, P||Yurevich, VI||Zborovsky, I||Zhang, H||Zhang, WM||Zhang, Y||Zhang, ZP||Zoulkarneev, R||Zoulkarneeva, Y||Zubarev, AN

publication date

  • August 2005