PROF. HUAN Z. HUANG
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of California, Los Angeles
QUARK MATTER, SYMMETRIES
AND HEAVY ION COLLISIONS
High energy nucleus-nucleus collisions can
excite Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD) vacuum to high temperature and/or high
baryon densities. Thus heavy ion collisions provide a means in laboratory
to probe physics of strange quark matter, quark-hadron phase transition,
QCD vacuum structure and spontaneous symmetry breaking. A new national
facility, Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), at Brookhaven National
Laboratory is expected to be operational in the spring of 2000. I shall
review recent experimental searches for exotic matter in heavy ion collisions,
and give an experimental perspective on physics issues with an emphasis
on future opportunities at RHIC.
COFFEE WILL BE AVAILABLE PRIOR TO THE COLLOQUIUM