Phenomenological Review on Quark-Gluon Plasma: Concepts vs. Observations

TL;DR

This review summarizes recent phenomenological research on Quark-Gluon Plasma, comparing theoretical concepts with experimental observations from major collider experiments, and discusses ongoing searches for the QCD critical point and collectivity in small systems.

Contribution

It provides an up-to-date overview of QGP phenomenology, integrating theoretical insights with experimental results from RHIC, SPS, and LHC, and discusses new developments in QCD critical point searches.

Findings

Summary of bulk observable results from heavy-ion collisions

Insights into QGP properties from lattice QCD and transport models

Discussion of collectivity in small collision systems

Abstract

In this review, we present an up-to-date phenomenological summary of research developments in the physics of the Quark--Gluon Plasma (QGP). A short historical perspective and theoretical motivation for this rapidly developing field of contemporary particle physics is provided. In addition, we introduce and discuss the role of the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) ground state, non-perturbative and lattice QCD results on the QGP properties, as well as the transport models used to make a connection between theory and experiment. The experimental part presents the selected results on bulk observables, hard and penetrating probes obtained in the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion experiments carried out at the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (BNL RHIC) and CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerators. We also give a brief overview of new developments related to the ongoing searches of the QCD critical point and to the collectivity in small ($p+p$ and $p+A$) systems.