Search for critical behavior of strongly interacting matter at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron

Understand

History, status and plans of the search for critical behavior of strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron is reviewed.

• In particular, it is expected that the search should answer the question whether the critical point of strongly interacting matter exists and, if it does, where it is located.
• First, the search strategies are presented and a short introduction is given to expected fluctuation signals and to the quantities used by experiments to detect th The most important background effects are also discussed.
• Second, relevant experimental results are summarized and discussed.