Signatures of Quark-Gluon Plasma Phase Transition in High-Energy Nuclear Collisions

Abstract

In high-energy nuclear collisions, the new phase of the quark-gluon plasma is indicated by an anomalous increase in pressure, an excess of direct photon production, an excess of strangeness production, and an anomalous J/psi suppression. We review these signatures and discuss how recent high-energy heavy-ion experiments at CERN are consistent with the production of the quark-gluon plasma in high-energy Pb+Pb collisions.

Comments: 12 pages, 6 figures, in LaTex, invited talk presented at the Third Catania Relativistic Ion Studies on Phase Transitions in Strong Interactions, Acicastello, Italy, May 22-26, 2000, to be published in the Conference proceedings