NEW DISCOVERIES AT RHIC--THE STRONGLY INTERACTIVE QGP (RBRC SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES) VOLUME 9

Recent experiments at RHIC have produced matter at energy densities at least 20 times that of atomic nuclei and perhaps an order of magnitude even larger. At such extremely high energy densities, strongly interacting matter is composed of quarks and gluons. The extraordinary discoveries of jet quenching, strong elliptic flow and other properties at RHIC established that this matter strongly interacts with itself. The purpose of this special volume is to highlight and summarize these published experimental discoveries from RHIC so far, and to pinpoint their physics implications from our present theoretical understanding. Since the volume deals with published experimental results and their implications, the same results already exist in the literature. Yet, we feel strongly that there are urgent needs and great merit for such a timely compilation of experts' views and summaries from the leaders in the field. The present success of RHIC is the culmination of intense efforts by many physicists through more than three decades. In the earlier time, whenever the term Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) was used, the underlying idea was quite often a weakly interactive plasma, much like the electron plasma. For such a weakly interactive plasma, Debye length would play a most fundamental role. Yet, what has been discovered at RHIC is a strongly interactive QGP, quite different from the old preconceptions. Many of the properties of this strongly interactive plasma are unexpected, and much of its characteristics are yet to be discovered. This is truly an exciting time for physics. We are indebted to the contributors of this volume for their effort, and we sincerely hope this RBRC publication can be a useful service to the physics community at large