Quark-Gluon Plasma: 50 Years and Beyond
暫譯: 夸克–膠子電漿：50 年與未來展望

這本開放取用的書籍，紀念人類探索夸克–膠子電漿（quark-gluon plasma, QGP）五十年的歷程。夸克–膠子電漿是一種極端高溫、高密度的物質形態，存在於大霹靂（Big Bang）發生後最初的幾微秒內；時至今日，它可能仍在中子星（neutron stars）的內部扮演某種角色。過去數十年間，科學家已具備在實驗室條件下重現這種極端物質狀態的能力，方法是利用高能粒子加速器，使重原子核彼此發生高能碰撞。這些實驗可探測量子色動力學（quantum chromodynamics, QCD）的基本預測；量子色動力學是描述強作用力的理論，而強作用力會將夸克與膠子束縛成質子、中子，最終形成所有原子核。

本書分為兩個部分。第一部分收錄多位自該領域早期便開始形塑其發展的重要科學家的個人回顧。第二部分則提供主題式評論，追溯理論理解與實驗計畫的演進；這些研究旨在辨識並刻畫夸克–膠子電漿的特徵訊號。本書也回顧全球重要實驗室之實驗計畫的發展歷程，包括 Brookhaven National Laboratory 與 CERN，同時闡述主要實驗室未來實驗計畫的發展方向。

整體而言，本書帶領讀者踏上一段回顧與紀念之旅，探索夸克–膠子電漿研究五十年來的進展：從理論概念的建立，到專門實驗設施中的詳細研究；同時也以前瞻性的視角，展望這個現代物理學中充滿活力的研究領域。

Tapan K. Nayak was Deputy Spokesperson of the ALICE Collaboration at CERN and is currently the ALICE Outreach Coordinator. He earned his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1990 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. He was previously a Scientist at the Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Department of Atomic Energy, Kolkata, and is now based at CERN. With over three decades of leadership in experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory and CERN, he has made significant contributions to the discovery and understanding of quark-gluon plasma.

Marco van Leeuwen (ALICE Spokesperson, 2023-2025) is a senior scientist at Nikhef, Amsterdam, whose research focuses on the strong interaction and the formation of quark-gluon plasma in high-energy nuclear collisions. He received his Ph.D. from Nikhef and Utrecht University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he worked on the STAR experiment at BNL. He has made major contributions within ALICE, holding key leadership roles including Physics Coordinator and Upgrade Coordinator, and has been instrumental in shaping its scientific program.

Steffen A. Bass is the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics at Duke University. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Goethe University Frankfurt in 1997. He is a leading expert in the phenomenology and transport properties of quark-gluon plasma, as well as in extracting knowledge from large-scale datasets through computational modeling. He is widely recognized for pioneering computational models of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions and for advancing data-driven approaches to understanding strongly interacting matter.

Claudia Ratti is the M.D. Anderson Chair Professor of Physics at the University of Houston. She received her Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Torino in 2003. She held postdoctoral positions at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Wuppertal, and later was an assistant professor at the University of Torino. Her research focuses on strongly interacting matter under extreme conditions, and her work has played a central role in connecting theoretical predictions with experimental results, advancing our understanding of the QCD phase diagram.

James C. Dunlop is the Associate Chair for Nuclear Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory and a leading experimentalist in relativistic heavy-ion physics. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. He has been at Brookhaven National Laboratory since April 2003, where he held key leadership roles in the STAR collaboration, including Group Leader and Deputy Spokesperson, contributing significantly to major discoveries in the field.

Tapan K. Nayak 曾任 CERN ALICE Collaboration 副發言人，目前擔任 ALICE 對外推廣協調人。他於 1990 年取得 Michigan State University 博士學位，並曾任 Columbia University 博士後研究員。他曾任職於印度 Kolkata 的原子能部 Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre，現以 CERN 為工作據點。憑藉在 Brookhaven National Laboratory 與 CERN 參與實驗、領導研究逾三十年的經驗，他對夸克–膠子電漿（quark-gluon plasma）的發現與理解做出了重大貢獻。

Marco van Leeuwen（ALICE 發言人，2023–2025 年）是 Amsterdam 的 Nikhef 資深科學家，研究聚焦於強作用力，以及高能核碰撞中夸克–膠子電漿的形成。他於 Nikhef 與 Utrecht University 取得博士學位，並曾任 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 博士後研究員，期間參與 BNL 的 STAR 實驗。他在 ALICE 內做出了重大貢獻，曾擔任物理協調人（Physics Coordinator）與升級協調人（Upgrade Coordinator）等重要領導職務，並在形塑 ALICE 科學研究計畫方面發揮關鍵作用。

Steffen A. Bass 是 Duke University 文理學院物理學傑出教授（Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Physics）。他於 1997 年取得 Goethe University Frankfurt 理論物理學博士學位。他是夸克–膠子電漿現象學與輸運性質，以及透過計算建模從大規模資料集擷取知識等領域的頂尖專家。他因開創超相對論性重離子碰撞的計算模型，以及推進以資料為導向、用於理解強作用物質的方法而廣受肯定。

Claudia Ratti 是 University of Houston 的 M.D. Anderson 物理學講座教授。她於 2003 年取得 University of Torino 理論物理學博士學位。她曾在 Technical University of Munich 與 University of Wuppertal 擔任博士後研究員，之後成為 University of Torino 的助理教授。她的研究聚焦於極端條件下的強作用物質；她的研究在連結理論預測與實驗結果方面扮演核心角色，推進了我們對 QCD 相圖的理解。

James C. Dunlop 是 Brookhaven National Laboratory 核物理學副主任，也是相對論性重離子物理學領域的頂尖實驗研究者。他於 1999 年取得 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 博士學位，並曾任 Yale University 博士後研究員。自 2003 年 4 月起，他便任職於 Brookhaven National Laboratory，期間曾在 STAR Collaboration 擔任團隊領導人（Group Leader）與副發言人（Deputy Spokesperson）等重要領導職務，對該領域的重大發現做出了重要貢獻。