The quest for a Quark-Gluon Plasma

TL;DR

This paper reviews the history and development of Quark-Gluon Plasma research over 50 years, highlighting key milestones and scientific progress in understanding this state of matter.

Contribution

It provides a concise overview of the evolution of Quark-Gluon Plasma studies, emphasizing how initial ideas matured into well-established scientific facts.

Findings

Historical milestones in QGP research

Progress from speculative ideas to scientific facts

Summary of key developments over 50 years

Abstract

A chapter in a book"50 years of QGP" An extended summary of the field can be found in large books and reviews, e.g., my take in Ref.~\cite{Shuryak:2024zrh}. It is hard to compress its 600+ pages and 50+ years of research to a few given below. Those include only recollection of few episodes, from early days to now, showing how vague dreams were eventually turning into solid and detailed scientific facts.