A critical review of RHIC experimental results

The relativistic heavy-ion collider (RHIC) was constructed to achieve an asymptotic state of nuclear matter in heavy-ion collisions, a near-ideal gas of deconfined quarks and gluons denoted quark–gluon plasma or QGP. RHIC collisions are indeed very different from the hadronic processes observed at the Bevalac and AGS, but high-energy elementary-collision mechanisms are also non-hadronic. The two-component model (TCM) combines measured properties of elementary collisions with the Glauber eikonal model to provide an alternative asymptotic limit for A–A collisions. RHIC data have been interpreted to indicate formation of a strongly-coupled QGP (sQGP) or "perfect liquid". In this review, I consider the experimental evidence that seems to support such conclusions and alternative evidence that may conflict with those conclusions and suggest different interpretations. (author)