The Little-Bang and the femto-nova in nucleus-nucleus collisions

Abstract

We make a theoretical and experimental summary of the state-of-the-art status of hot and dense QCD matter studies on selected topics. We review the Beam Energy Scan program for the QCD phase diagram and present the current status of the search for the QCD critical point, particle production in high baryon density region, hypernuclei production, and global polarization effects in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The available experimental data in the strangeness sector suggests that a grand canonical approach in the thermal model at high collision energy makes a transition to the canonical ensemble behavior at low energy. We further discuss future prospects of nuclear collisions to probe properties of baryon-rich matter. Creation of a quark-gluon plasma at high temperature and low baryon density has been called the “Little-Bang” and, analogously, a femtometer-scale explosion of baryon-rich matter at lower collision energy could be called the “femto-nova”, which could possibly sustain substantial vorticity and a magnetic field for non-head-on collisions.