Quark-Gluon Plasma Physics

The quark-gluon plasma is a state of the extremely dense matter with the quarks and gluons being its constituents. Soon after the Big Bang the matter was just in such a phase. When the Universe was expanding and cooling down the quark-gluon plasma turned into hadrons - neutrons and protons, in particular - which further formed the atomic nuclei. The plasma is not directly observed in Nature nowadays, but the astrophysical compact objects as the neutron stars may conceal the quark-gluon nuggets in their dense centers. The most exciting, however, are possibilities to study the plasma in laboratory experiments. A broad research program of the heavy-ion collisions, which provides a unique opportunity to produce and study the quark-gluon droplets in the terrestrial conditions, is underway.

Since the quark-gluon plasma is the system of relativistic quantum fields governed by nonAbelian interaction, its dynamics is very reach. Current theoretical studies, exploiting methods of quantum field theory and relativistic kinetic theory, focus on the plasma which is far from the thermodynamic equilibrium. A spectrum of excitations of such plasma, transport coefficients and mechanisms responsible for the plasma equilibration are actively studied. Plasma instabilities, which dramatically influence plasma temporal evolution, are of particular interest.

As an introduction to the quark-gluon plasma physics, one suggests the article: St. Mrówczyński, Quark-Gluon Plasma, Acta Physica Polonica, B29, 3711 (1998).

More information
Professor Stanisław Mrówczyński
High Energy Physics P-VI Department, IPJ, Warszawa, Hoża 69
Phone +48222 5532207 fax +48022 6212804
and
Institute of Physics Swietokrzyska Academy
Swietokrzyska 15, 25-406 Kielce
fax +4841 3496443