Heavy-Ion Physics

Dear Colleagues,

In heavy-ion collisions at high energy, a new state of matter, called Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP), is produced. QGP is assumed to have been formed few millionths of seconds after the Big Bang, and therefore, studying heavy-ion collisions one can shed light on the Universe’s evolution.

Originally, theorists predicted that QGP behaved like a weakly interacting gas, but results at the relativistic heavy ion collider and at the large hadron collider (LHC) showed that it is instead a strongly coupled liquid.

QGP properties in heavy-ion collisions are currently under study, and their understanding is crucial for a deep knowledge of quantum chromodynamics.

Surprisingly enough, LHC experiments recently showed the presence of collective effects in high-energy hadron–hadron collisions, posing the question on the possibility of QGP formation also in small collision systems.

Reviews of experimental results as well as new theoretical modelling ideas are welcome to be part of this Special Issue.

Dr. Valentina Zaccolo
Guest Editor

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• heavy-ion collisions
• quark–gluon plasma
• strongly interacting matter
• quantum chromodynamics
• high-energy collisions
• LHC
• RHIC