Review Of The Heavy Ion Physics Sessions

Download or read book Review of the Heavy Ion Physics Sessions written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The parallel sessions on Heavy Ion Physics covered several areas of recent progress in characterizing the nuclear equation of state and the search for deconfined quark matter. Studies of systems from 1 to several hundred GeV/nucleon have been made in order to map the behavior of nuclear matter over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. We have also considered results from proton-nucleus reactions in the heavy ion physics discussions. This should help untangle nuclear effects'' due to the presence of relatively undisturbed nuclear matter from observables arising in the hot, dense part of the system. Even though heavy ion physics covers a large range of bombarding energies, the same two basic questions must be answered. The first problem is to characterize the system that has been produced. We need to determine the energy density, lifetime, temperature and baryon density reached in the collision before expansion and particle production. Then we may address the second issue and look for evidence of new physics. At this meeting, we heard new results from experiments, and theoretical analyses which strive to explain all available data, including those from proton-nucleus collisions. We explored heavy quark production, which may indicate quark matter through color screening of c{bar c} pairs. We heard new results in strangeness production, which has been predicted to be enhanced if quark matter is formed. There were also discussions of jets and minijets, which may probe the hot, dense matter existing early in the collision.