An Introduction to Quark—Gluon Plasmas

Abstract

It i s tried to present the main features of quark-gluon plasma physics to a possible reader not so fmniliar with quantum chromodynamics and its exteaion to high temperatures, merely by lookiiig for some analogies to usual electrodynamic plasma phenomena : The electrons correspond to the quarks, the photons to the gluons, the electromagnetic coupling to the strong coupling. However, in contrast to the ionization processes or, more general, generation processes of electric;illy charged particles or holes, the change from the usnal hadronized state of nuclear matter to thc collective quark-gluon plasma state is a first-order phnse transition. The possible existence of such quark matter in the cores of massive neutron stars, a t ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions and in the early state of the Universe are discussed in n verbal approximation.From every foreign language we can learn something about our mother tongue.