  I review the main predictions for the heavy-ion programme at the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) at CERN, as available in early April 2009. I begin by
remembering the standard claims made in view of the experimental data measured
at the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN and at the Relativistic Heavy Ion
Collider (RHIC) at the BNL. These claims will be used for later discussion of
the new opportunities at the LHC. Next I review the generic, qualitative
expectations for the LHC. Then I turn to quantitative predictions: First I
analyze observables which characterize directly the medium produced in the
collisions - bulk observables or soft probes -: multiplicities, collective
flow, hadrochemistry at low transverse momentum, correlations and fluctuations.
Second, I move to calibrated probes of the medium i.e. typically those whose
expectation in the absence of any medium can be described in Quantum
Chromodynamics (QCD) using perturbative techniques (pQCD), usually called hard
probes. I discuss particle production at large transverse momentum and jets,
heavy-quark and quarkonium production, and photons and dileptons. Finally,
after a brief review of pA collisions, I end with a summary and a discussion
about the potentiality of the measurements at the LHC - particularly those made
during the first run - to further substantiate or, on the contrary, disproof
the picture of the medium that has arisen from the confrontation between the
SPS and RHIC data, and theoretical models.
