Heavy-ion collisions in a fixed target mode at the LHC beams

Abstract

The interaction of high-energy LHC beams with fixed target, including polarized nuclei targets, can expand the range of fundamental physical investigations accessible at CERN. High-intensity beam of protons and lead ions accumulated in the LHC collider allows to apply the gas-target system like the LHCb SMOG or HERMES systems. It is also possible to use the beam halo by placing in the halo the fixed target in the form of thin ribbon or use a bend crystal to extract the beam. In the extracted beam it is possible to install a polarized target. Using the proton and ion beams of the LHC with fixed targets, the data in the energy interval between maximum energy of the SPS and the nominal RHIC energy in p-A and A-A collisions could be obtained. The fixed target mode allows the intensive study of rare processes, the study of polarization phenomena, the measurements of the parameters needed to analyze the data of cosmic rays and neutrino astrophysics, detailed study of the processes of quarkonia production and suppression. The high statistics data on quarkonium production at these energies will give the possibility to clarify the mechanism of production, to investigate the importance of recombination process and the energy dependence on the phase transition of nuclear matter to the quark-gluon phase. Also the physical program includes the study of the Drell-Yan process, D-meson production, flow and spin physics.