? ? Nucleus-nucleus collisions in NA61/SHINE The main goal of studying nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions in NA61/SHINE is the investigation of fundamental features of strongly interacting matter Phases of water liquid water vapor ice The well known heating curve of water shows the transitions between the different phases of H2O Q (heat added) 100 Heating of water vapor Heat used to vaporize water to water vapor Heating of water temperature (oC) Ice the phase diagram of water is well established One expects, that the properties of nuclear matter can be related to the well known behaviour of water, including different phases (BUT water properties are determined by electro-magnetic interactions and are well researched, and properties of nuclei are determined by strong interactions and are not known well beyond equilibrium state). critical point 1st order phase transition Properties of hadrons measured in AA collisions as a function of system energy, interpreted as heating curves of strongly interacting matter, serve as suggestion for a transition between hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma. The phase diagram of nuclear matter, as well as properties of hypothetical phase transitions still have to be uncovered and are hypothetical for now gas of hadrons and quark-gluon plasma Phases of strongly interacting matter ? ? To be discovered by NA61/SHINE? Baryochemical potential (MeV) COLLISIONS OF TWO NUCLEI Properties of produced hadrons NA61/SHINE will perform a scan in energy and size of the colliding nuclei. It may allow to proove the existence and uncover the properties of transition between hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma (hints of this transition were discovered by our predecessor NA49 in study of Pb+Pb collisions). It may allow to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter. It will help to uncover fundamental properties of matter. Water is well suited for the Eath-based research, as all three basic phases of water exist on the surface of our planet and sizes of samples are relatively close to human dimensions. Strongly interacting matter in condidtions other then the ground state existed in early universe, may be found in neutron stars, supernovae, black holes etc., or may be produced in AA collisions. Only one of this possibilities can be studied in current laboratory conditions. stars made of strongly interacting matter (neutron stars, supernovae) Tracks produced in the NA61, p+p(158GeV) collision (scale 10 m) droplets of water NA61/SHINE plans to perform a comprehensive scan in energy and size of colliding nuclei. It may lead to the discovery of hill of fluctuations, it may uncover properties of transition between hadron gas and quark-gluon plasma the only tool to study the properties of strongly interacting matter in the laboratory is the investigation of collisions of heavy nuclei 10-12 Hill of fluctuations? Properties of phase transition? Xe+La droplets of strongly interacting matter Ar+Ca B+C p+p 10 20 30 40 80 158 UrQMD energy (A GeV) Snapshot of the produced matter, Pb+Pb(158AGeV) collision (scale 10-14 m) 10 20 30 40 80 158 = 2∙106 registered collisions NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS The NA61/SHINE Collaboration: 130 physicists from 24 institutes and 13 countries: University of Athens, Athens, Greece University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland KFKI IPNP, Budapest, Hungary Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia Fachhochschule Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland Jan Kochanowski Univeristy, Kielce, Poland Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow, Russia LPNHE, Universites de Paris VI et VII, Paris, France Faculty of Physics, University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia State University of New York, Stony Brook, USA KEK, Tsukuba, Japan Soltan Institute for Nuclear Studies, Warsaw, Poland Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria, Valparaiso, Chile Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland LHC NA61/SHINE SPS