Search for the Quark-Gluon Plasma with Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions
John C. Hill
Department of Physics,
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
A central goal of nuclear physics is to study a new form of high-temperature/density
nuclear matter called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). It is believed
that a microsecond after the birth of the universe it was in the
form of a QGP and later condensed by a phase transition of unknown
nature to nuclear matter as it exists today. Temperatures needed
to convert nuclear matter to a QGP are around a factor of 1000 higher
than those produced in a nuclear weapon. First I will discuss
> the nature of the QGP which is a state of matter in which the quarks
and gluons that compose nuclei are temporarily freed from their confinement
within the nucleus. I will then introduce you to the new accelerator
called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National
Laboratory. RHIC produces colliding beams of gold nuclei with
energies of 20,000 GeV and is our tool to find the QGP. We are part of
the PHENIX detector collaboration where the emphasis is on detecting
and studying weak and electromagnetic probes such as electrons, muons
and photons that emerge from the collision fireball reasonably uneffected
by final-state interactions and thus give important information about
the initial phases of the collision. After illustrating the
capabilities of PHENIX I will discuss possible signals for the QGP and
conclude by sharing with you some results from RHIC's first year
of operation in 2000.