Salient results of heavy ion experiments

Main motive behind heavy ion studies at ultrarelativistic energies, is to look for signals of deconfinement or formation of quark gluon plasma (QGP). Although no unchallenged evidence for QGP formation has come as yet; many interesting features have been observed which help us understand the systematics and mechanism of nucleus-nucleus interactions at high energies. Salient experimental results on important topics such as: global variables and signals of QGP are presented. Global variables i.e. particle production and energy densities, signals of QGP e.g. strangeness enhancement, J/Ψ suppression and production of direct photons are also discussed. 30 refs., 14 figs