Helmut Satz – författare

This book is a course-tested primer on the thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter – a profound and challenging area of both theoretical and experimental modern physics. Analytical and numerical studies of statistical quantum chromodynamics provide the main theoretical tool, while in experiments, high-energy nuclear collisions are the key for extensive laboratory investigations. As such, the field straddles statistical, particle and nuclear physics, both conceptually and in the methods of investigation used.

The book addresses, above all, the many young scientists starting their scientific research in this field, providing them with a general, self-contained introduction that highlights the basic concepts and ideas and explains why we do what we do. Much of the book focuses on equilibrium thermodynamics: first it presents simplified phenomenological pictures, leading to critical behavior in hadronic matter and to a quark-hadron phase transition. This is followedby elements of finite temperature lattice QCD and an exposition of the important results obtained through the computer simulation of the lattice formulation. It goes on to clarify the relationship between the resulting critical behavior due to symmetry breaking/restoration in QCD, before turning to the QCD phase diagram. The presentation of bulk equilibrium thermodyamics is completed by studying the properties of the quark-gluon plasma as a new state of strongly interacting matter. The final chapters of the book are devoted to more specific topics that arise when nuclear collisions are considered as a tool for the experimental study of QCD thermodynamics. This second edition includes a new chapter on the hydrodynamic evolution of the medium produced in nuclear collisions. Since the study of flow for strongly interacting fluids has gained ever-increasing importance over the years, it is dealt with it in some detail, including comments on gauge/gravity duality. Moreover, other aspects ofexperimental studies are brought up to date, such as the search for critical behavior in multihadron production, the calibration of quarkonium production in nuclear collisions, and the relation between strangeness suppression and deconfinement.

The aim of this book is to offer to the next generation of young researchers a broad and largely self-contained introduction to the physics of heavy ion collisions and the quark-gluon plasma, providing material beyond that normally found in the available textbooks.

For each of the main aspects - QCD thermodynamics and global features of the QGP, collision hydrodynamics, electromagnetic probes, jet and quarkonium production, color glass condensate, and the gravity connection - the present volume provides extensive and pedagogical lectures, surveying the present status of both theory and experiment.

A particular feature of this volume is that all lectures have been written with the active assistance of selected students present at the course in order to ensure the adequate level and coverage for the intended readership.

The thermodynamics of strongly interacting matter has become a profound and challenging area of modern physics, both in theory and in experiment. Statistical quantum chromodynamics, through analytical as well as numerical studies, provides the main theoretical tool, while in experiment, high-energy nuclear collisions are the key for extensive laboratory investigations. The field therefore straddles statistical, particle and nuclear physics, both conceptually and in the methods of investigation used.

 This course-tested primer addresses above all the many young scientists starting their scientific research in this field, providing them with a general, self-contained introduction that emphasizes in particular the basic concepts and ideas, with the aim of explaining why we do what we do.

 To achieve this goal, the present text concentrates mainly on equilibrium thermodynamics: first, the fundamental ideas of strong interaction thermodynamics are introduced and then the main concepts and methods used in the study of the physics of complex systems are summarized. Subsequently, simplified phenomenological pictures, leading to critical behavior in hadronic matter and to hadron-quark phase transitions are introduced, followed by elements of finite-temperature lattice QCD leading to the important results obtained in computer simulation studies of the lattice approach. Next, the relation of the resulting critical behavior to symmetry breaking/restoration in QCD is clarified before the text turns to the study of the QCD phase diagram. The presentation of bulk equilibrium thermodynamics is completed by studying the properties of the quark-gluon plasma as new state of strongly interacting matter. The final chapters of the book are devoted to more specific topics which arise when nuclear collisions are considered as a tool for the experimental study of QCD thermodynamics.

Der 4. Juli 2012 stellt ein historisches Datum für das Europäische Kernforschungszentrum CERN in Genf dar: die Verkündung der Entdeckung des letzten, vorhergesagten, noch fehlenden und lange gesuchten Elementarteilchens, des Higgs-Bosons. Ein Jahr später kommen im Rahmen der Konferenz des Zentrums  für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) in Bielefeld eine Vielzahl der mit dem Großprojekt am CERN verbundenen Wissenschaftler zusammen, um nicht nur über die Entdeckung des Teilchens, sondern vor allem über die Realisierung und Bedeutung eines derart ungeheuren Unterfangens für solch ein wissenschaftliches Großprojekt zu berichten.

Der Generaldirektor des CERN, Prof. Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, liefert in seinem Eröffnungsvortrag die Grundlage für die Diskussion der vielerlei Aspekte, die dabei ins Spiel kommen.

So finden sich im vorliegenden Band zum einen Berichte über die Großforschung selbst: von der Entdeckung des Higgs-Teilchens über die Erforschung des Quark-Gluon-Plasmas unddie Bedeutung von Theorien der Neuen Physik, wie der Supersymmetrie, bis hin zur Gefahr durch Schwarze Mikrolöcher. Zum anderen werden Themen werden Themen wie der Bau und die Finanzierung von Großprojekten, wie dem LHC am CERN oder dem FAIR in Darmstadt, näher beleuchtet. Darüber hinaus bereichern Beiträge über die philosophischen Aspekte und kulturellen bzw. gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen der wissenschaftlichen Großforschung am LHC den interdisziplinären Austausch um weitere Perspektiven.

Durch eine Vielzahl an Informationsboxen werden dem Leser relevante Hintergründe und die notwendigen physikalischen Sachverhalte nähergebracht.