Quark Gluon Plasma: Its Formation and Various Signatures

Abstract

This chapter gives an introduction to the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), a primordial state of matter which was present in the early universe just after the few microsecond of the big bang and is also predicted to be in the core of some compact stars. We have discussed the formation of this novel state of matter in the ultra-relativistic heavy ion collision experiments at relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) at BNL in USA and large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN. A brief overview of the major signatures of QGP has been presented. A qualitative discussion about the various theoretical techniques employed to study the properties of the QGP has also been done.