Recent highlights from the PHENIX heavy ion program

Abstract

It is accepted that a QGP can be formed in relativistic collisions of heavy nuclei (A+A). Recently long-range correlations have been observed in p+A collisions at the LHC in high multiplicity events. PHENIX has carried out a series of studies of d+Au collisions at 200 GeV to see if such correlations persist at lower energies compared to those at the LHC. Results of a study of long-range correlations and flow are presented for d+Au collisions. Data from Au+Au collisions collected during the beam energy scan (BES) was used to determine both quark and nucleon number scaling. The HBT method was used to determine radii of the fireball at kinetic freezeout. Implications for the nuclear EOS are discussed. Also results of a search for “dark photons” are presented. Recent PHENIX highlights on heavy flavor, electromagnetic probes, spin and plans for PHENIX upgrades were presented in other talks at this conference.