Exploring strangeness and the primordial Universe

Using the style of a 'personal diary', Rafelski firstly reviews and summarises decades of work. Describing leading experimental and theoretical contributions, he recounts how and why strange quarks are produced so efficiently in QGP, and how this behaviour has been exploited for QGP discovery. He also explores strangeness as a tool in the search and discovery of this primordial phase of matter; existent at unimaginably high temperatures and pressures. He then follows the line of research through to the ongoing experimental ultra-high-energy experiments involving head-on collisions between both heavy nuclei and lighter protons, carried out at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Secondly, Rafelski follows the narrative with a commented set of his own unpublished work, focusing on pioneering theories and QGP discovery. He also includes a selection from the comments of referees offering both criticism and praise for these studies; along with his own present-day perspectives. This review highlights the numerous successes enjoyed by theorists, through decades of tireless effort to explain and understand the primordial QGP. All the same, it shows that many pressing questions remain to be answered. Rafelski continues to contribute to the field through his rich research experience and will undoubtedly inspire new generations of physicists to continue the study of exotic quarks in the primordial Universe.