Search for deconfinement in NA49 at the CERN SPS

Experiment NA49 at the Cern SPS has performed large acceptance measurements of hadron production in pp, pPb, CC, SiSi and PbPb collisions at 40 and 158 A·GeV beam energies. These data allowed a study of particle yields, spectra and correlations as well as event-by-event fluctuations of average event properties of the created hadron system. Results from central PbPb collisions are consistent with the onset of deconfinement during the early stage of the reaction in the lower SPS energy range. A new scaling property of particle production ratios was found which relates collision systems of different size and centrality. Systematics of the evolution of particle production from pp via pPb to PbPb collisions were investigated.