1. ? ? 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
UrQMD
energy (A GeV)
Snapshot of the produced matter, Pb+Pb(158AGeV) collision
(scale m)
= 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