Future of the beam energy scan program at RHIC

• Main Author: Odyniec Grazyna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2015-01-01
• Series: EPJ Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20159503027

The first exploratory phase of a very successful Beam Energy Scan Program at RHIC was completed in 2014 with Au+Au collisions at energies ranging from 7 to 39 GeV. Data sets taken earlier extended the upper limit of energy range to the √sNN of 200 GeV. This provided an initial look into the uncharted territory of the QCD phase diagram, which is considered to be the single most important graph of our field. The main results from BES phase I, although effected by large statistical errors (steeply increasing with decreasing energy), suggest that the highest potential for discovery of the QCD Critical Point lies bellow √sNN 20 GeV. Here, we discuss the plans and the preparation for phase II of the BES program, with an order of magnitude larger statistics, which is planned for 2018-2019. The BES II will focus on Au+Au collisions at √sNN from 20 to 7 GeV in collider mode, and from √sNN 7 to 3.5 GeV in the fixed target mode, which will be run concurrently with the collider mode operation.