Quantum Chromodynamics Phase Diagram (IMAGE)
Caption
The "current conjecture" for the QCD phase diagram. The boundary between the normal (hadronic) low-temperature phase and the high-temperature quark-gluon plasma phase is marked in black. The square box on the solid line indicates the yet-to-be-found critical point where phases can co-exist; RHIC is the only heavy-ion collider whose energy can be tuned across the region where it is likely to lie. Neutrons and protons and other ordinary matter particles (including antimatter particles) are detected after they "freeze out" of fireballs caused by heavy-ion collisions like those at RHIC, indicated by the dotted line. To the right is a possible region of "color superconductivity."
Credit
Gupta et al.
Usage Restrictions
with credit as given
License
Licensed content