  It has been theorized that if heavy nuclei (e.g. Au, Pb) are collided at
sufficiently high energies, we might be to recreate the conditions that existed
in the universe a few microseconds after the Big Bang. The kinetic energy of
the colliding nuclei gets converted into heat, leading to a phase transition
into a new state of matter: the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), in which quarks and
gluons are deconfined. However, we never directly get to see the QGP because as
the matter cools it recombines (hadronizes) into ordinary subatomic particles.
We can only hope to infer its existence from indirect experimental signatures,
after hadronization. In this dissertation we attempt to shed some light on:
  Properties of the final state of produced matter in Au+Au collisions at
$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV. As the hot, dense system of particles from the
collision zone cools and expands, light nuclei like deuterons and
anti-deuterons can be formed, with a probability proportional to the product of
the phase space densities of its constituent nucleons. Thus, invariant yield of
deuterons, compared to the protons and neutrons from which they coalesce,
provides information about the size of the emitting system and its space-time
evolution.
  The initial conditions that led to this. This is done by looking at the
nuclear modification factor $R_{cp}$ from particle production in forward and
backward directions in a ``control'' experiment using d+Au collisions at
$\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV. This can allow us to distinguish between effects that
could potentially be due to deconfinement, versus effects of cold nuclear
matter.
