Introductory Overview of Quark Matter 2012

Abstract

The two arguably most generic phenomena seen in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions are the flow of essentially all soft hadronic observables and the quenching of essentially all hard hadronic observables. Limiting the discussion to these two classes of phenomena, I review what can be said so far about the properties of hot and dense QCD matter from the heavy ion programs at RHIC and at the LHC, and I discuss the opportunities for further progress in the coming years.Comment: 8 pages, write-up of plenary talk at Quark Matter 2012 in Washington, to appear in the QM12 conference proceeding