The Exploration of Hot Nuclear Matter

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 337; no. 6092; pp. 310 - 314
• Main Authors: Jacak, Barbara V., Müller, Berndt
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 20.07.2012; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Exact sciences and technology; Exploration; Gluons; Hadrons; Liquids; Matter & antimatter; Nuclear matter; Nuclear physics; Nucleons; Particle accelerators; Photons; Physics; Plasma physics; Quantum chromodynamics; Quark-gluon plasma; Quarks; REVIEW; Soups; Specific theories and interaction models; particle systematics; String theory; Strong nuclear force; The physics of elementary particles and fields; Viscosity; Energetics; String theory; Quantum system; Quark-gluon plasma; Ultracold atom; Black holes; Heavy nuclei; Cosmology; Strong coupling; Nuclear matter
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1215901

When nuclear matter is heated beyond 2 trillion degrees, it becomes a strongly coupled plasma of quarks and gluons. Experiments using highly energetic collisions between heavy nuclei have revealed that this new state of matter is a nearly ideal, highly opaque liquid. A description based on string theory and black holes in five dimensions has made the quark-gluon plasma an archetypical strongly coupled quantum system. Open questions about the structure and theory of the quark-gluon plasma are under active investigation. Many of the insights are also relevant to ultracold fermionic atoms and strongly correlated condensed matter.