Formation of quark-gluon plasma at central rapidity

The conditions for the ignition, and the maximum achievable temperature (energy density), of a quark-gluon plasma formed in head-on high energy , nuclear collisions is determined by balancing the energy gain from particle influx into a-plasma seed and the enerqy Jos s from thermaf particle radiation. It is found that a projectile energy of 20-50 GeV/nucleon should suffice to generate quark-gluon plasma events.