
Statistical QCD predicts with increasing temperature a transition from hadronic matter to a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons. The SPS Heavy Ion Programme was initiated to study this transition and the resulting quark-gluon plasma. After summarizing the different probes for the collision evolution, I survey the experimental results obtained so far and assess the conclusions that can be drawn.
16 pages, 22 figures, 1 table; to appear in CERN 50th Anniversary issue of Physics Reports revised version: updated figures, small corrections
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph), FOS: Physical sciences
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology, High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph), FOS: Physical sciences
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