RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION PHYSICS

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the relativistic heavy-ion physics. The energy deposition in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is not known. There are four large experiments planned at CERN: (1) NA34, an experiment aiming at detecting leptons with extensive calorimetry and a small solid angle magnetic spectrometer, (2) NA35, centered around a streamer chamber and also featuring calorimetry, (3) NA36, built for the detection of strange particles—for example, lambdas, cascades, and Ω−—using a sweeping magnet and a time projection chamber, and (4) the plastic ball and calorimetry experiment. E-802 is a high-energy heavy-ion experiment. The main feature of the experimental setup of E-802 is a single-arm magnetic spectrometer with two tracking counters before and two after the magnet for momentum determination. Particle identification is accomplished by time-of-flight measurements to a wall of scintillators placed all the way toward the end of the spectrometer platform combined with two Cerenkov counters. The first counter uses aerogel as a light source. The second counter uses freon gas at pressures up to 4 atmospheres. The experiment can then measure spectra as a function of multiplicity and transverse neutral energy flow, providing information on effective temperatures and production cross sections. The solid angle of the spectrometer will allow studies of two particle correlations of ρ, π, and κ, leading to estimates of source sizes.