From QCD to heavy ion collisions

Abstract

This talk will discuss how heavy ion experiments, when moving from SPS (10 + 10 GeV) to RHIC (100+100 GeV) and to LHC (2750+2750 GeV), will enter a new domain of QCD in which the production of even large pT gluons is so abundant that it is simultaneously perturbative but such that the phase space density of gluons is saturated. The saturation scale is estimated, quantitative numbers for the initial production of gluons at the LHC are given and options for their subsequent evolution are outlined. For parametrically large nuclei and energies, classical field methods will be applicable.