| Description |
A major success of the physics program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) was the indentification of evidence confirming the creation of a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) state of matter in heavy-ion collisions. What remains as an open question is the nature of the phase tranistion between the QGP and the hadronic gas to which it transitions as it cools in the aftermath of the collision. We now understand that when a QGP which contains equal numbers of quarks and anti-quarks (such as after the big bang) cools the phase transition is continous. Theory predicts that as the ratio of quark to anti-quarks
skews significantly, as is the case in lower energy heavy-ion collisions, the phase transition will become first-order. Preliminary results from an energy scan of Au+Au collisions at RHIC suggested that such a transistion was occuring, but the results were not definative. RHIC is currently in the middle of a three-year program to answer this question. Thus talk will review the upgrades to the STAR detector at RHIC and to the collider necessary for this study, the status of the program, and the preliminary results. |
