Hadronic And Quark Matter

Understanding the quark structure of matter has been one of the most important advances in contemporary physics. It has unravelled a new and deeper level of structure in matter, and physics at that level reveals a unity and aesthetic simplicity never before attained. All forces emerge from a unique invariance principle and each of the basic interactions results from a specific symmetry property. Quarks interact among themselves through their ?colour?, as now accurately described by quantum chromodynamics.This volume brings together eight major review articles by Maurice Jacob, a physicist at the forefront of research on the quark structure of matter. He has, in particular, been involved with two research topics in this field. The first is the study of hadronic jets, which one actually sees instead of quarks, because of the opacity of the vacuum to colour. The second is the search for quark matter, a new form of matter believed to exist at high temperatures, when the vacuum should become transparent to colour.The papers in this volume provide a comprehensive review of these phenomenological studies on the quark structure of matter, and also a fasinating insight into the pace of recent progress in these areas. The book comes complete with an original introduction by the author, and also contains a pedagogical review on what is a most engrossing and rewarding field of research in physics.

Proceedings of a NATO ASI held in Cargese, France, August 8-18, 1989

This book provides an accessible introduction to the rapidly expanding field of hadronic interactions and the quark–gluon plasma. Covering the basics as well as more advanced material, it is ideal for graduate students as well as researchers already working in this and related fields.

From the Editors Preface: "Quark Matter 1987 was attended by about 250 scientists, representing 75 research institutions around the world - the scientific community engaged in experimental and theoretical studies of high energy nuclear collisions. The central theme of the meeting was the possibility of achieving extreme energy densities in extended systems of strongly interacting matter - with the ultimate aim of creating in the laboratory a deconfined state of matter, a state in which quarks and gluons attain the active degrees of freedom. High energy accelerator beams and cosmic radiation projectiles provide the experimental tools for this endeavour; on the theoretical side, it is intimately connected to recent developments in the non-perturbative study of quantum chromodynamics. Phase transitions between hadronic matter and quark-gluon plasma are of basic interest also for our understanding of the dynamics of the early universe ... A very special feature of this Sixth Quark Matter Conference was the advent of the first experimental results from dedicated accelerator studies. These were conducted during 1986/87 at the AGS of Brookhaven National Laboratory ... and at the CERN SPS ... An intense discussion of these data formed the main activity of the meeting.

This is probably the only textbook available that gathers QCD, many-body theory and phase transitions in one volume. The presentation is pedagogical and readable. It provides materials interesting to both students and researchers of astrophysics, nuclear physics and high energy physics.

This proceedings volume brings together the contributions of experts from different fields within the nuclear physics community. Topics such as rare kaon decays, astrophysics, relativistic heavy ion collisions, and few-GeV electromagnetic probes are covered. The strange quark plays a vital role in understanding such diverse phenomena as CP violation (article by Lincoln Wolfenstein), the ?spin crisis? (article by Brad Filipone), and supernova explosions (article by Chris Fryer). Additional topics of interest are parity violation experiments, strangeness content of the proton, and enhanced strangeness production at CERN and RHIC. This unique blend of recent results, with a focus on the role of the strange quark, shows the prominence of strangeness in nuclear physics over the past 50 years.

This book focuses on new experimental and theoretical advances concerning the role of strange and heavy-flavour quarks in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and in astrophysical phenomena. The topics covered include • Strangeness and heavy-quark production in nuclear collisions and hadronic interactions, • Hadron resonances in the strongly-coupled partonic and hadronic medium, • Bulk matter phenomena associated with strange and heavy quarks, • QCD phase structure, • Collectivity in small systems, • Strangeness in astrophysics,• Open questions and new developments.

This set of lectures deals with the transition from nuclear matter to quark matter. The reader will learn not only about the theory of quark-gluon plasmas but also how they are obtained in the laboratory through heavy-ion collisions or where they can be found in astrophysical objects such as compact stars. The book fills a gap between well-known textbook material and the research literature and is thus perfectly suited for postgraduate students who wish to enter this field, for lecturers looking for advanced material for their courses and for scientists in search of a modern source of reference on these topics.