From the news. Apparently they are very similar, yet different.
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OK: When a high energy collision occurs, a color-glass condensate (CGC) is formed, then a “glasma”, and then a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). This all happens very rapidly. The CGC is glassy, ie resembling a solid, but not a crystal. The glasma is very hot. The QGP has color charges instead of (or in addition to) electric charges, but other wise resembles an ordinary plasma. It is liquid-like, rather than gas-like or dust-like, as was expected before the RHIC experiments. The CGC was expected for heavy ion collisions, but not for proton-lead collisions (at least by some authors), but it appears to be there. All three (CGC, glasma, and QGP) can be described as “new states of matter” ala the popular press, but have been predicted, discussed (in the professional literature), and possibly observed before the recently announced LHC Alice experiments, but now are much better confirmed. This is what I have gathered so far. My understanding is still quite shaky. I think the relevant recent publication is this one: http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.3701 I have now read the CGC and QGP wikipedia pages three times, including once before my first post, and I still think that they are more confusing than helpful. (By the way, this is my first time “answering my own question”. I wouldn’t do it if I had gotten a better answer elsewhere.) |
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