Oxygen induced reactions at 200 and 60 GeV/nucleon

The ultimate goal of ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics is the creation and detection of a new form of matter, the so-called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). The QGP is a state of matter in which normal nuclear matter has been compressed to such an extent that the color force field between the constituents of the nucleon is sufficiently screened that a deconfinement phase transition takes place [Sa86]. It is widely believed that the early universe, some 10-6 seconds after its creation, consisted of this form of primordial matter. This paper shows the space-time evolution of quark matter, created in the laboratory by means of the ultra-relativistic collision of two heavy nuclei. If two nuclei of high energy collide, they will create a zone of hot and dense matter, eventually having an energy density high enough to melt the individual nucleons into a soup of freely moving quarks and gluons, the above described QGP. The QGP will rapidly expand, and quarks will hadronize, mainly into charged and neutral mesons. The (very difficult) experimental task is to search amongst and amidst the abundantly created mesons for signatures of the early QGP phase