We study J/[psi] production at RHIC and LHC energies with both initial production and regeneration. We solve the coupled set of transport equation for the J/[psi] distribution in phase space and the hydrodynamic equation for evolution of quark-gluon plasma. At RHIC, continuous regeneration is crucial for the J/[psi] momentum distribution while the elliptic flow is still dominated by initial production. At LHC energy, almost all the initially created J/[psi]s are dissociated in the medium and regeneration dominates the J/[psi] properties.

The authors review the search for the quark-gluon plasma using the signal of the suppression of J/[psi] production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Recent anomalous J/[psi] suppression in high-energy Pb-Pb collisions observed by the NA50 Collaboration are examined and compared with earlier results from pA and nucleus-nucleus collisions with heavy ions of smaller mass numbers. The anomalous suppression of J/[psi] production in Pb-Pb collisions can be explained as due to the occurrence of a new phase of strong J/[psi] absorption, which sets in when the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions at a spatial point exceeds about 4 and corresponds to a local energy density of about 3.4 GeV/fm3.

The J/[psi] suppression was originally proposed as a signature of the quark-gluon plasma. Strong suppression of J/[psi] production was indeed observed recently by the NA50 Collaboration at CERN SPS. Is it the first signature of a long-awaited quark-gluon matter, or just a peculiar combination of ''conventional'' effects acting together to produce the puzzling pattern observed experimentally? In this lecture, I am trying to summarize the existing theoretical explanations.

The purpose of this volume is to trace the development of the theoretical understanding of quark-gluon plasma, both in terms of the equation of state and thermal correlation functions and in terms of its manifestation in high energy nuclear collisions. Who among us has not wondered how tall a mountain is on a neutron star, what happens when matter is heated and compressed to higher and higher densities, what happens when an object falls into a black hole, or what happened eons ago in the early universe? The study of quark-gluon plasma is related in one way or another to these and other thought provoking questions. Oftentimes the most eloquent exposition is given in the original papers. To this end a selection is made of what are the most important pioneering papers in this field. The early 1950s was an era when high energy multiparticle production in cosmic ray interactions attracted the attention of some of the brightest minds in physics, and so it should be no surprise that the first reprinted papers deal with the introduction of statistical models of particle production. The quark model arose in the 1960s, while QCD as such was recognized as the theory of the strong interactions in the 1970's. The behavior of matter at high temperatures and supranuclear densities became of wide interest in the nuclear and particle physics communities starting in the 1970s, which is when the concept of quark-gluon plasma became established. The history of the field has been traced up to the early 1990s. There are three reasons for stopping at that point in time. First, most of the key theoretical concepts and formalisms arose before 1993, although many of them continue to be developed today and hopefully well into the future. Second, papers written after 1992 are much more readily available than those writen before due to the advent of the World Wide Web and its electronic preprint databases and journals. Finally, in making this collection of reprints available as hardcopy one is limited in the number of pages, and some papers in the present selection should have been deleted in order to make room for post-1993 papers. For the same reason the subject focus must of necessity be limited, which means that in this reprint collection two wide subject areas are not addressed: the behavior of nuclear matter under extreme conditions is not reported, nor is quark matter in neutron stars. The broad categories into which the material has been placed, reflect the diverse studies of quark-gluon plasma and its manifestation. They are: phase-space models of particle production, perturbative QCD plasma, lattice gauge theory, fluid dynamics and flow, strangeness, heavy flavor (charm), electromagnetic signals, parton cascade and minijets, parton energy loss and jet quenching, Hanbury Brown--Twiss (HBT) interferometry, disoriented chiral condensates, phase transition dynamics and cosmology, and color superconductivity. Each chapter is prefaced by an introduction, which contains a list of significant papers which is more complete than the reprinted papers, though by no means exhaustive. It also contains citations to most relevant papers published up to the date of completion of this volume (fall 2002). It is hoped that the short reviews will help bring the reader up to date on the latest developments. The selection of papers cited in each chapter, and in particular the ones selected for reprinting, is solely the responsibility of the Editors. It is based on their best judgement and experience in this field dating back to the mid-1970s. In order to be reprinted a paper must have been pioneering in the sense of originality and impact on the field. Generally they have been cited over a hundred times by other papers published in refereed journals. The final selection was reviewed and discussed among the Editors repeatedly. Just because a paper is not included does not mean they do not know of it or do not have a high regard for it. All of the papers cited or reprinted are original research contributions. There are three other types of publications listed. The first is a compilation of books. The second is a list of reviews, many of which contain a significant amount of original material. The third is a list of the proceedings of the series of Quark Matter meetings, the primary series of international conferences in this field that is attended by both theorists and experimentalists.

The level of 'anomalous' charmonium suppression in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and its interpretation as a signal of quark-gluon plasma formation requires a robust understanding of charmonium production and absorption in proton-nucleus collisions. In a previous study we have shown that, contrary to common belief, the so-called J/[psi] 'absorption cross section', [sigma]{sub abs}{sup J/[psi]}, is not a 'universal constant' but, rather, an effective parameter that depends very significantly on the charmonium rapidity and on the collision energy. Here we present ugraded Glauber calculations with the EPS09 parameterization of nuclear modifications of the parton densities. We confirm that the effective 'absorption cross section' depends on the J/{psi} kinematics and the collision energy. We also make further steps towards understanding the physics of the mechanisms behind the observed 'cold nuclear matter' effects.

This is a sequel to the review volume Quark-Gluon Plasma. There are 13 articles contributed by leading investigators in the field, covering a wide range of topics about the theoretical approach to the subject. These contributions are timely reviews of nearly all the actively pursued problems, written in a pedagogical style suitable for beginners as well as experienced researchers.

This is a review monograph on quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Different theoretical and experimental aspects of the program to produce QGP in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are covered by experts in the field. This is the third volume in a series on the subject, and the first such monograph to focus on the implications of the experimental results from RHIC, the relativistic heavy-ion collider at the National Brookhaven Laboratory. The review articles will be useful to experienced researchers as well as to graduate students entering the field.

This is a review volume containing articles written by experts on current theoretical topics in the subject of Quark-Gluon Plasma created in heavy-ion collisions at high energy. It is the fourth volume in the series with the same title sequenced numerically. The articles are written in a pedagogical style so that they can be helpful to a wide range of researchers from graduate students to mature physicists who have not worked previously on the subject. A reader should be able to learn from the reviews without having extensive knowledge of the background literature.