The quest for the quark-gluon plasma from the perspective of dynamical models of relativistic heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

The physics of heavy-ion collisions is one of the most exciting and challenging directions of science for the last four decades. On the theoretical side one deals with a non-abelian field theory, while on the experimental side today's largest accelerators are needed to enable these studies. The discovery of a new stage of matter - called the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) - and the study of its properties is one of the major achievements of modern physics. In this contribution we briefly review the history of theoretical descriptions of heavy-ion collisions based on dynamical models, focusing on the personal experiences in this inspiring field.

12 pages, 9 figures; contribution to the Astronomische Nachrichten, Special issue: IWARA2024 Reviews