The changing scenario of the atomic nucleus—from nucleons and mesons to quarks and gluons

Abstract

The general characteristics of the transition from hadronic matter of nucleons, three quark bags, mesons of quark antiquark pairs to quark gluon plasma is discussed. The phenomenological approach essentially guided by the MIT bag model and general thermodynamic criteria of first-order phase transition is elaborated. The more realistic calculations using the QCD lattice renormalization quark are touched upon. Possible signals of quark-gluon plasma are discussed. The central issue of deciphering plasma signals from the signals of hot hadronic matter is discussed in detail.