# Presentation: 292821

## Output from this Series of Workshops:

**A science vision for the RHIC future**

- Provide a science case for the future RHIC program that makes clear its importance in the broad scientific arena, including a future Long Range Plan.

- 2.  Provide a set of core scientific goals, as seen by the RHIC community, that can serve as a basis for Laboratory planning and decision making regarding the RHIC program, including upgrades, in response to an array of possible budget scenarios.

- RHIC II is part of this vision, but the discussion needs to be broader than a  focus on a specific project

## RHIC Science Whitepaper

***A study of physics opportunities for the coming decade***

**Overview and conclusions--  drawn from Working Group Reports**
**	****	****	****	****	****	****-*****writing committee-***

- _Address NSAC Subcommittee questions:_
-         What are the most crucial measurements to be made in RHIC heavy-ion collisions over the next decade to define clearly whether a new state (or states) of matter has been observed, and to delineate the central properties of that matter?  What compelling new insights would these measurements bring to our understanding of fundamental issues of broad scientific interest?

-   Of the above measurements, which ones require detector and/or collider upgrades?  Which ones could be uniquely addressed at RHIC in the LHC era?  What unique scientific opportunities would be lost if RHIC were not upgraded?

-    What compelling new insights would the RHIC spin program bring to our understanding of fundamental issues of broad scientific interest?  What unique scientific opportunities would be lost if this program were to be severely curtailed?

## RHIC Science White Paper

**II.  Reports from the Working Groups**

- _Charge to the Working Groups_
- Identify which of the physics questions [listed at the November workshop] can be addressed by the class of measurements to be studied by the working group, and outline the structure of a scientific program that can successfully attack these questions and lead to convincing answers.
- Identify the compelling questions that can be addressed with RHIC and cannot be addressed at the LHC.  Which provide crucial complementary information to the planned LHC measurements?
- Specify the required information, kinematic range, statistical precision, and required beam combinations to address the physics questions.  What technical advances (experimental and theoretical) are required beyond the capabilities currently in place at RHIC?

## Physics Questions to be addressed by the Working Groups  

-   What is the nature of the phase transition between nuclear matter and quark matter? (How does this type of matter return to its usual forms observed in our detectors?) How does hadronization work? Is there evidence for deconfinement?
-   How does the clearly evident thermodynamic character of a high energy heavy ion collision evolve from the zero entropy initial state? How does the collision thermalize so quickly?
-   What are the properties of strongly coupled quark gluon plasma? Transport properties? Medium properties: Resonant states? Collision probability? Screening length?
-   Is chiral symmetry restored? When in the collision and what are the effects?
-   What can non-equilibrium field theory tell us about: Initial state? Is there a color glass
- condensate? Thermalization? Medium properties?
-   What is the structure and dynamics inside the proton? What is the spin structure of the nucleon? Is parity violation important?
-   Are there exotic hadrons that can be studied at RHIC?

**From the November Workshop...**

## Time Scale

- Aim to complete the White Paper document by Dec. 31, 2005
-   This puts it in play for the FY 2008 budget cycle

- Another workshop ~September with “final” results from Working Groups
-   Writing Committee in place

- One-day Workshop June 22, at the Annual Users Meeting