Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Jurgen Schukraft

Publications and source records attributed to Jurgen Schukraft.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2017

QM2017: Status and Key open Questions in Ultra-Relativistic Heavy-Ion Physics

Almost exactly 3 decades ago, in the fall of 1986, the era of experimental ultra-relativistic (\emph{E/m $\gg 1$}) heavy ion physics started simultaneously at the SPS at CERN and the AGS at Brookhaven with first beams of light Oxygen ions at fixed target energies of 200 GeV/A and 14.6 GeV/A, respectively. The event was announced by CERN \cite{cernpress1,cernpress2} with the usual superlatives "Break new ground.., World Record Energy ..", but also with the information that "up to 400 particles were created per collision" and that "over 300 physicists .. analyzing the data .. [try] to find out whether the famous quark-gluon plasma really has been achieved". One would have thought that with almost one physicist per particle, this would have been figured out rather quickly. However, as we know today, 30 years and 21 Quark Matter conferences later, the study of dense and hot matter, of the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime, has been a long and winding road. The journey was much more difficult and time consuming, but also much more interesting and rewarding, than anyone could have anticipated, with many twists, some dead ends, and a never-ending string of surprises. This $30^{th}$ anniversary of heavy ion physics, and the start of the 26$^{th}$ Quark Matter in Chicago, is a good opportunity to look back and mention a few of the major results from each of the three eras (fixed target/RHIC/LHC), along with some of the answers they have provided us and some of the key questions which remain to be solved.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2015

Toward the Limits of Matter: Ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions at CERN

Strongly interacting matter as described by the thermodynamics of QCD undergoes a phase transition, from a low temperature hadronic medium to a high temperature quark-gluon plasma state. In the early universe this transition occurred during the early microsecond era. It can be investigated in the laboratory, in collisions of nuclei at relativistic energy, which create "fireballs" of sufficient energy density to cross the QCD Phase boundary. We describe 3 decades of work at CERN, devoted to the study of the QCD plasma and the phase transition. From modest beginnings at the SPS, ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics has evolved today into a central pillar of contemporary nuclear physics and forms a significant part of the LHC program.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2012

Ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions: event shape engineering

The evolution of the system created in a high energy nuclear collision is very sensitive to the fluctuations in the initial geometry of the system. In this letter we show how one can utilize these large fluctuations to select events corresponding to a specific initial shape. Such an "event shape engineering" opens many new possibilities in quantitative test of the theory of high energy nuclear collisions and understanding the properties of high density hot QCD matter.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2012

First Results from Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC

At the end of 2010, the CERN Large Hadron Collider started operation with heavy ion beams, colliding lead nuclei at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV/nucleon and opening a new era in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics at energies exceeding previous accelerators by more than an order of magnitude. This review summarizes the results from the first year of heavy ion physics at LHC obtained by the three experiments participating in the heavy ion program, ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2011

First Results from the ALICE experiment at the LHC

After close to 20 years of preparation, the dedicated heavy ion experiment ALICE took first data with proton collisions at the LHC starting in November 2009 and first Pb-Pb data in November 2010. This article summarizes initial operation and performance of ALICE as well as first results from both pp and Pb-Pb collisions.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2010

ALICE status and highlights

After close to 20 years of preparation, the dedicated heavy ion experiment ALICE took first data with proton collisions at the LHC starting in November 2009. This article summarizes initial operation and performance of ALICE at the LHC as well as first results from collisions at 900 GeV and 7 TeV.

hep-ex↗
arXiv2010

Status and initial operation of ALICE

After close to 20 years of preparation, the dedicated heavy ion experiment ALICE took first data with proton collisions at the LHC at the end of 2009. This article recalls the main design choices made for the detector and summarizes initial operation and performance of ALICE at the LHC; first physics results are covered elsewhere in these proceedings.

physics.ins-det↗