A short course on relativistic heavy ion collisions / A.K. Chaudhuri.

"Version: 20140901"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preface -- Introduction to the deconfined state -- Introduction -- Conceptual basis for QGP formation -- Why is it important to study QGP?

Kinematics of heavy ion collisions -- Introduction -- Space-time continuum -- Lorentz transformation -- Space-time rapidity -- Transverse mass, rapidity and pseudo-rapidity -- Light-cone coordinates -- Invariant distribution -- Luminosity -- Center-of-mass and laboratory system -- Decay of particles -- Mandelstam variables -- Phase space

The Glauber model -- Introduction -- Glauber model of scattering -- The Glauber model for a composite scatterer -- Nuclear density -- Binary collision numbers -- The inelastic cross section -- Participant number -- The Monte-Carlo Glauber model -- The two-component model for multiplicity

Classical theories for macroscopic systems -- Introduction -- Brief review of thermodynamics -- Brief review of statistical physics -- A brief review of relativistic kinetic theory

Quantum chromodynamics -- Introduction -- Brief introduction to gauge theory -- QCD Lagrangian -- Perturbative QCD -- Non-perturbative QCD -- Chiral phase transition -- The nature of QCD phase transition -- The QCD phase diagram in the [mu]-T plane

Equation of state for QGP and hadronic resonance gas -- Introduction -- Equation of state for QGP with vanishing quark mass -- Hadronic resonance gas -- The van der Waals equation of state -- HRG in the excluded volume method -- The statistical bootstrap model -- Extended HRG

Modeling relativistic heavy ion collisions -- Introduction -- Statistical or thermal models -- The blast wave model -- Color glass condensate -- Hydrodynamic model -- Transport approach based models

Two-particle correlation -- Introduction -- Amplitude interferometry -- Intensity interferometry -- Gaussian parameterization of the correlation function -- Experimental results

Signals of quark-gluon plasma -- Introduction -- J/[psi] suppression -- Strangeness enhancement -- Electromagnetic probes -- Jet quenching

Appendix A. -- A.1. Natural units -- A.2. Planck units -- A.3. Wick's theorem -- A.4. The density matrix -- A.5. The SU(N) group -- A.6. The Riemann zeta function -- A.7. The Legendre transformation -- A.8. The Dirac equation in a spherical cavity -- A.9. Grassmann numbers -- A.10. The Wigner function.

This book introduces the subject of high-energy, heavy-ion collisions, in particular, the subject of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) to graduate students and young researchers, in both experimental and theoretical physics.

Professional and scholarly.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Asis Kumar Chaudhuri is head of the Theoretical Physics Division, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata and a professor at the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Kolkata, India.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on October 8, 2014).