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arXiv · 0805.4572

From SPS to RHIC: Maurice and the CERN heavy-ion programme

Ulrich W. Heinz
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Abstract

Maurice Jacob played a key role in bringing together different groups from the experimental and theoretical nuclear and particle physics communities to initiate an ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collision program at the CERN SPS, in order to search for the quark-gluon plasma. I review the history of this program from its beginnings to the time when the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) started operation. I close by providing a glimpse of the important discoveries made at RHIC and giving an outlook towards heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). During Maurice's life and not least through his perpetually strong influence, relativistic heavy-ion physics has matured and led to discoveries that radiate into many other fields of physics. Heavy-ion physicists owe a great deal to Maurice Jacob.

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Ulrich W. Heinz. 2008-05-30. From SPS to RHIC: Maurice and the CERN heavy-ion programme. https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-8949%2F78%2F02%2F028005

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