Experimental results from the early measurements at RHIC; hunting for the quark–gluon plasma

This is a short survey of key measurements that have driven the exciting new physics results from the first years of RHIC operation. The focus is on those data that relate to the question of whether new forms of matter, e.g., the quark–gluon plasma, can be explored with heavy ion collisions at RHIC. Only published, publicly available data are considered.