Seminar in Hadronic Physics

The Quark-Gluon Liquid at RHIC

Gunther Roland

MIT

Heavy-ion collisions at Brookhaven Lab's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) produce a strongly interacting QCD medium at energy densities far exceeding those of normal nuclear matter. Under these conditions, which resemble the early universe shortly after the Big Bang, the produced matter behaves like an ideal liquid undergoing a rapid three-dimensional expansion. I will present a critical review of the most striking observations made at RHIC and discuss their connection to the expected quark-gluon plasma state of QCD. I will show how future experiments at RHIC and the CERN Large Hadron Collider can help confirm or disprove our current understanding of QCD matter at the highest energy densities.