The phases of strongly interacting matter in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions the produced high temperature, high energy density state will cross different phases of the strongly interacting matter. The original idea of quark-gluon plasma formation has been evolved and the weakly interacting gaseous state of massless partons has been replaced by the picture of strongly interacting massive constituent quarks. Experimental results at SPS and RHIC supports this idea. We discuss the phases at LHC energies.Comment: Presented at International Symposium on Exotic Nuclear Systems (ENS'05), Debrecen, Hungary, 20-25 Jun 200