Soft Physics from RHIC to LHC

TL;DR

This paper reviews the soft physics results from RHIC, highlighting the discovery of the quark-gluon plasma as a nearly perfect liquid and discussing implications for the LHC heavy ion program.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of soft observables at RHIC and their significance for understanding the quark-gluon plasma and future LHC studies.

Findings

Discovery of the quark-gluon plasma as a perfect liquid

Insights into the medium's properties from soft particle data

Implications for heavy ion physics at the LHC

Abstract

The RHIC program was intended to identify and study the quark-gluon plasma formed in the collision of heavy nuclei. The discovery of the "perfect liquid" is an essential step towards the understanding of the medium formed in these collisions. Much of data relevant to this was provided by the study of "soft" observables, which involve many particles of low momentum produced in nearly every event, rather than high momentum particles produced in rare events. The main results related to soft physics at RHIC are discussed, as well as their implications for the physics of the LHC heavy ion program.