1. The Low Energy Frontier Marcus Bleicher Institut für Theoretische Physik Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Goethe Universität Frankfurt Germany

2. The ‘High Baryon Density’ Frontier Marcus Bleicher Institut für Theoretische Physik Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Goethe Universität Frankfurt Germany

3. The ‘Quest for the CEP’ Frontier Marcus Bleicher Institut für Theoretische Physik Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Goethe Universität Frankfurt Germany

4. The ‘where pQCD wont help you’ Frontier Marcus Bleicher Institut für Theoretische Physik Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Goethe Universität Frankfurt Germany

5. Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Outline Past achievement Experimental facts The next decade Experiments Theory

6. The phase diagram Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 CEP is potentially between muB=250-500 MeV  ECM=5-20 AGeV

7. CEP or not? No critical point seen in recent studies Some groups daubted it always Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Endroedi et al,arxiv:1102.1356Fodor, Katz, hep-lat/0111064 Philipsen, arxiv:1009.4089

8. Key results from NA49 Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Hadron production and transverse dynamics show irregular structures The these structures do all appear at ECM = 8 AGeV Gazdzicki

9. Cooking the matter Plateau may signal the onset of the mixed phase A similar plateau is also present in the v2 excitation function from STAR Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Gazdzicki, Sorensen, Mitrovski

10. Softening of the EoS Sign change in v1 at midrapidity  Signal for a phase transition (Csernai) Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 STAR, Mohanty

11. Non-flow Is there also a kink in the non-flow contribution? Increase in conversion of initial anisotropy into momentum space? Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 statistical errors only STAR Preliminary Mitrovski, Sorensen

12. RHIC low energy scan Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 STAR, A. Schmah

13. Onset of a long lived hadronic stage? Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 STAR, A. Schmah Hadronic scattering may eat up anti-particle

14. The Phi drops out Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 STAR, A. Schmah Violation of NCQ scaling at 11 AGeV Onset of the QGP?

15. CEP and onset of deconfinemt found? Irregular structures in various observables around ECM = 10 AGeV Could be something trivial like change from mesonic to baryonic systems! Can we get more precise information from first principle calculations? Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

16. Is it sufficient to look at the average? Fluctuations might provide information on - deconfinement/confinement - correlation length - thermalization - nature of the QGP - critical point Gazdzicki, Mrowczynski, Jeon, Koch, Rajagopal, MB, Stephanov, Shuryak,… Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

17. K/pi fluctuations Strangeness to pion fluctuations seem to indicate an increase starting at ECM=20 AGeV (what about the RHIC data?!) Interpretation unclear  probes need solid interpretation

18. Is this really a glimpse of the CEP? Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Gazdzicki

19. From the lattice to data (I) Large fluctuations are observed around the transition temperature  potentially observable in data  Measure higher moments of the distribution Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Cheng, PRD79 (2009)

20. From the lattice to data (II) Non Gaussian fluctuations Relation to lattice is unclear to me Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Karsch, Redlich, Stephanov, Friman Cheng, PRD79 (2009)

21. Summary so far All available experiments have observed very interesting structures However, a definite interpretation within a single theoretical approach is not available This calls for improvements on both sides (but especially in theory) Lepton probes (di-leptons, photons) and heavy quarks are not available in the relevant energy region! Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

22. The physics challenges The onset of deconfinement  parton-hadron phase transition  CEP Hadron properties at high baryon density Equation of State of QCD  Speed of sound Exotica  High precision measurements  High precision theory Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

23. To this aim we have two new facilities available:  FAIR  NICA And we have the running programs at  SPS (NA61)  RHIC-BES (STAR/PHENIX) Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

24. Heavy Ion Program at JINR NICA/MPD Facility Heavy ion colliding beams 197Au79+ x 197Au79+ at  s NN = 4 ÷ 11 GeV (1 ÷ 4.5 GeV/u ion kinetic energy ) at L average = 1E27 cm-2  s-1 (at  s NN = 9 GeV) Light-Heavy ion colliding beams of the same energy range and luminosity Polarized beams of protons and deuterons in collider mode Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 From Sorin

25. Energy Range of NICA The most intriguing and unexplored region of the QCD phase diagram:  Highest net baryon density  Onset of deconfinement phase transition  Strong discovery potential: a) Critical End Point (CEP) b) Chiral Symmetry Restoration с) Hypothetic Quarkyonic phase  Complementary to the RHIC/BES, CERN, FAIR and Nuclotron-M experimental programs NICA physics program Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 NICA Nuclotron-M RHIC-BES

26. Time schedule Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 2010201120122013201420152016 ESIS KRION LINAC + channel Booster + channel Nuclotron-M Nuclotron-M → NICA Channel to collider Collider Diagnostics Power supply Control systems Cryogenics MPD Infrastructure R&DDesignManufactrngMount.+commis.Commis/oprOperation

27. The FAIR facility Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

28. The experiments Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 Heavy Ions up to Ebeam=35 AGeV Anti-protons up to 15 AGeV Ultra high luminosity  rare probes  high precision

29. Region of the phase diagram Theoretically FAIR will probe the onset of deconfinement and the CEP Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011 3 fluid hydro, Toneev

30. What could be done In-medium properties of hadrons using dileptons (rho, omega, phi, D) Multi-strange hadrons (phi, Omega), charmed hadrons (D, J/Psi)  flow measurements with high stats Exotic bound states (e.g. MEMOs) E-be-E fluctuations Color superconductivity – pre cursors Quarkyionic matter Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

31. Time schedule FAIR company founded 2010 Detector TDRs expected spring 2012 Site preparation winter 2011/2012 Start of ground breaking work Q2 2012 Buildings and tunnels ready 2016/2017 Begin of accelerator commissioning 2017/2018 HADES  SuperHADES  CBM Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

32. What I wish for theory We have effective models, e.g. PNJL, Quark- meson model to understand the phases of QCD  devise a dynamical models based on these Lagrangians 3+1 d viscous hydro for low energies with lQCD EoS (at finite muB) and realistic initial conditions (shape and e-by-e) A standard model for transport simulations including the phase transition, CEP dynamics, multi-particle interactions and with solid backing of the community Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011

33. Outlook We have highly interesting (and not fully understood) data at low energies We have running programs at the moment (critical flucs at NA61, v2(Phi) from STAR,...) We have new machines coming up to go into operation within the next 10 years This will allow to obtain high precision data to map out the EoS of QCD and to find new exotica Marcus Bleicher, QM 2011