Abstract
When nuclear matter is heated beyond a temperature of 2 trillion
degrees, it converts into a strongly coupled plasma of quarks and
gluons, the sQGP. Experiments using highly energetic collisions
between heavy nuclei have revealed that this new state of matter is a
nearly ideal, highly opaque liquid. A description based upon string
theory and black holes in five dimensions has made the quark- gluon
plasma an iconic example of a strongly coupled quantum system. In this
lecture I will survey the observed properties of the sQGP in the light
of the latest results from RHIC and LHC. On the theoretical side, I
will discuss the thermalization and entropy production problem and
origin and role of event-by-event fluctuations.
