Quark Matter

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 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.

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.

Dramatic progress has been made in all branches of physics since the National Research Council's 1986 decadal survey of the field. The Physics in a New Era series explores these advances and looks ahead to future goals. The series includes assessments of the major subfields and reports on several smaller subfields, and preparation has begun on an overview volume on the unity of physics, its relationships to other fields, and its contributions to national needs. Nuclear Physics is the latest volume of the series. The book describes current activity in understanding nuclear structure and symmetries, the behavior of matter at extreme densities, the role of nuclear physics in astrophysics and cosmology, and the instrumentation and facilities used by the field. It makes recommendations on the resources needed for experimental and theoretical advances in the coming decade.

The meaning of "quark matter" is twofold: It refers to 1) compound states of "subquarks" (the most fundamental constituents of matter), which quarks consist of, as "nuclear matter" to those of "nucleons" (the constituents of the nucleus), and 2) compound states of quarks that consist of roughly equal numbers of up, down, and strange quarks, and which may be absolutely stable. Recently, both types of quark matter have become very intriguing subjects in physics and astronomy since the recently discovered Higgs boson may be taken as a composite object (possibly, a bound state of subquark-antisubquark pairs). Additionally, many recently observed compact stars have been considered as "strange stars" (stars consisting of quark matter). In this book, these subjects in physics and astronomy are discussed without requiring readers to comprehend mathematical details.This book consists of three chapters: Chapter One: "Quark Matter and Strange Stars", Chapter Two: "Composites of Subquarks as Quark Matter", and Chapter Three: "Dark Energy, Dark Matter, and Strange Stars". Their contents include the following: In Chapter One, quark matter and strange stars are discussed in detail. In Chapter Two, the unified subquark model of all fundamental particles (quarks, leptons, and gauge and Higgs bosons) and forces (strong, electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational forces) is discussed in detail. In Chapter Three, pregeometry, in which the general theory of relativity for gravity can be derived as an approximate theory at long distances, is briefly reviewed. Furthermore, special and general theories of "inconstancy" in pregeometry - in which fundamental physical constants may vary - are introduced. Finally, possible solutions to the most puzzling problem in current cosmology of dark energy and dark matter in the universe are presented. Between Chapters One and Two, episodes on Dr. Abdus Salam are added, as Dr. Salam was one of the founders of subquark models. Also, between Chapters Two and Three, episodes on Dr. Andrei Sakharov are added, as Dr. Sakharov was the founder of pregeometry.

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.