Abstract
The CERN heavy ion program, started in 1986, has accumulated an impressive amount of experimental results on the study of high energy density nuclear matter. One experiment (NA50) has reported evidence for deconfinement of quarks and gluons from the study of the J/$J suppression pattern measured in Pb-Pb collisions. The enhancement of multistrange hyperon production observed by WA97 proves that strangeness is equilibrated on a very short timescale, a behaviour expected in case of transition to a deconfined state. Finally, the study of hadron yields has ahowed to establish the velocity of the fireball expansion, and to calculate the freeze-out temperature of the created system. All the experiments agree in concluding that at least in central Pb-Pb interactions a state with many of the characteristics foreseen for a Quark-Gluon Plasma(QGP) has been created.
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