By Johann Rafelski (ed.)
Springer
Also available at the CERN bookshop
The statistical bootstrap model (SBM), the exponential rise of the hadron spectrum, and the existence of a limiting temperature as the ultimate indicator for the end of ordinary hadron physics, will always be associated with the name of Rolf Hagedorn. He showed that hadron physics contains its own limit, and we know today that this limit signals quark deconfinement and the start of a new regime of strong-interaction physics.
This book is edited by Johann Rafelski, who was a long-time collaborator with Hagedorn and took part in many of the early conceptual developments of the SBM. It may perhaps be best characterised by pointing out what it is not. It is not a collection of review articles on the physics of the SBM and related topics, which could be given to newcomers as an introduction to the field. It is not a collection of reprints to summarise the well-known work of Hagedorn on the SBM, and it is also not a review of the history of this theory. Actually, in this thoughtfully composed volume, aspects of all of the above can be found. However, it goes beyond all of them.
Including a collection of earlier articles on Hagedorn’s work, as well as new invited articles by a number of authors, and original work by Hagedorn himself, along with comments and reprinted material of Rafelski, the book clearly gains its value through the unexpected. It provides an English translation of an early overview article by Hagedorn written in German, as well as unpublished material that may even be new to well-informed practitioners in the field. As such, it presents the transcript of the draft minutes of the 1982 CERN Scientific Policy Committee (SPC) Meeting, at which Maurice Jacob, then head of the CERN Theory Division, reported about the 1982 Bielefeld workshop on the planned experimental exploration of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, setting the scene for the forthcoming experimental programme at CERN’s SPS.
The book is split into three parts.
Part I, “Reminiscences: Rolf Hagedorn and Relativistic Heavy Ion Research”, contains a collection of 15 invited articles from colleagues of Hagedorn who witnessed the initial stages of his work, leading to formulation of the SBM theory in the early 1960s, and its decisive contribution in expressing the need for an experimental research programme in the early 1980s: Johann Rafelski, Torleif Ericson, Maurice Jacob, Luigi Sertorio, István Montvay and Tamás Biro, Krzysztof Redlich and Helmut Satz, Gabriele Veneziano, Igor Dremin, Ludwik Turko, Marek Gaździcki and Mark Gorenstein, Grażyna Odyniec, Hans Gutbrod, Berndt Müller, and Emanuele Quercigh. These contributions draw a lively picture of Hagedorn, both as a scientist and as a man, with a wide range of interests spanning high-energy physics to music. They also illustrate the impact of Hagedorn’s work on other areas of physics.
Part II, “The Hagedorn Temperature”, contains a collection of original work by Hagedorn. In this section, the scientist’s seminal publication that appeared in 1964 in Nuovo Cimento is deliberately not included; however, publications that emphasise the hurdles that had to be overcome to get to the SBM, and the interpretation Hagedorn offered on his own work in later years, are presented. This is undoubtedly of great interest to those familiar with the physicist’s work but also curious about its creation and growth.
Part III, “Melting Hadrons, Boiling Quarks: Heavy Ion Path to Quark–Gluon Plasma”, puts the work of Hagedorn into the context of the discussion of a possible relativistic heavy-ion programme at CERN that took place in the early 1980s. It starts with his thoughts about a possible programme of this kind, presented at the workshop on future relativistic heavy-ion experiments, held at the Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung (GSI). It also includes the draft minutes of the 1982 CERN SPC meeting, and some early works on strangeness production as an indicator for quark–gluon plasma formation, as put forward after many years by Rafelski.
The book is undoubtedly an ideal companion to all those who wish to recall the birth of one of the main areas of today’s concepts in high-energy physics, and it is definitely a well-deserved credit to one of the great pioneers in their development.
