Quark soup cooking at trillions of degrees: experimental study on the phase structure of nuclear matter and the quantum chromodynamics critical point

The phase structure of hot and dense nuclear matter is a field of frontier research in nuclear physics. The experimental confirmation of the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) critical point will be a milestone in exploring the phase structure of nuclear matter, which has important scientific significance. In order to claim a leading position and make breakthroughs in this extremely promising research direction, many countries have built advanced accelerators and particle detectors one after another to conduct heavy-ion collision experiments. One of the main physical goals is to explore the phase structure of hot dense nuclear matter and search for the QCD critical point. This paper summarizes the recent experiments and future research on the QCD phase structure and critical point in relativistic heavy ion collisions.