The Horn, Kink and Step, Dale: from few GeV to few TeV

TL;DR

This paper reviews experimental evidence from heavy-ion collisions at various energies, highlighting the search for the onset of quark-gluon plasma formation and comparing results across different experiments and energy scales.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of recent experimental results from STAR, ALICE, and NA49 regarding the onset of deconfinement in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Evidence of the onset of deconfinement observed

Comparison of results across different energy scales

Insights into phase transition between confined matter and QGP

Abstract

Rich experimental data have been collected in heavy-ion collisions at high energies to study the properties of strongly interacting matter. As the theory of strong interactions, QCD, predicts asymptotic freedom, the created matter at sufficiently high temperature and density will be dominated by a state of quasi-free quarks and gluons referred to as the Quark-Qluon Plasma (QGP). Experimental signals for the onset of the QGP creation (the onset of the deconfinement) have been predicted within the statistical model for the early stage of nucleus-nucleus collisions. In this model the existence of two different phases is assumed: confined mater and the QGP, as well as a first order phase transition between them. Until recently, these predictions were confirmed only by the NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS. In this report recent results from STAR at RHIC/BNL and from ALICE at LHC/CERN, related to the onset of deconfinement, will be compared to published results from NA49.