Heavy Ions at LHC: A Quest for Quark-Gluon Plasma

TL;DR

This paper reviews how heavy ion collisions at the LHC can test predictions of Quark-Gluon Plasma formation from Quantum Chromo Dynamics, advancing our understanding of strong interactions and confinement.

Contribution

It provides an overview of experimental efforts at the LHC to validate QCD predictions about QGP and discusses the implications for strong interaction theory.

Findings

Evidence supporting QGP formation at LHC energies

Validation of lattice QCD predictions about phase transition

Insights into confinement mechanisms in QCD

Abstract

Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD), the theory of strong interactions, predicts a transition of the usual matter to a new phase of matter, called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), at sufficiently high temperatures. The non-perturbative technique of defining a theory on a space-time lattice has been used to obtain this and other predictions about the nature of QGP. Heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in CERN can potentially test these predictions and thereby test our theoretical understanding of confinement. This brief review aims at providing a glimpse of both these aspects of QGP.