This paper is dedicated to the memory of Jozsef Zimanyi one of the founders of the experiment NA49 at the CERN SPS. Firstly, the paper summarizes the main results of NA49 concerning observation of the onset of deconfinement in central Pb+Pb collisions at the low SPS energies. Secondly, it sketches the physics program of NA61 at the CERN SPS, the successor of NA49, which in particular aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter. Finaly, a brief review of the future experimental programs in the CERN SPS energy range is given.
The physics goals, the detector and its performance as well as status and plans of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS accelerator are presented.
The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study properties of the onset of deconfinement. These goals will be reached by measurements of hadron production properties in nucleus-nucleus, proton-proton and proton-lead interactions as a function of collision energy and size of the colliding nuclei. Furthermore, NA61/SHINE will perform numerous precision measurements needed for neutrino (T2K) and cosmic-ray (Pierre Auger Observatory and KASCADE) experiments. This paper summarizes physics arguments for the NA61/SHINE ion program…
Status of the new experimental program to study hadron production in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS will be presented. A physics motivation will be given for the part of the program related to the physics of strongly interacting matter. Upgrades of the NA61 experimental set-up and data taking plans will be described in detail.
The NA61/SHINE programme on strong interactions covers the study of the onset of deconfinement and aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter by performing an energy and system-size scan over the full CERN SPS momentum range. So far the scans of p+p, $^7$Be+$^9$Be, as well as Ar+Sc have been completed. Results from p+p and Be+Be collisions are now emerging, in particular the energy dependence of hadron spectra and yields. Status and preliminary results from this effort will be presented.
Status of the new experimental program to study hadron production in hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS will be presented. In particular, a detailed physics motivation and experimental strategy will be given for the part of the program related to the physics of strongly interacting matter: search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter, study properties of the onset of deconfinement, and high p_T measurements in p+p and p+A interactions. The planned measurements for the neutrino T2K and cosmic-ray experiments will also be discussed.
The aim of the NA61/SHINE strong interaction programme is to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. The main physics goals are the study of the onset of deconfinement and the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter. These goals are pursued by performing a beam momentum (13A -- 150/158A GeV/c) and system size (p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb) scan. This contribution presents new results from NA61/SHINE on fluctuations and correlations which include in particular quantum correlations, as well as multiplicity and net-charge fluctuations, proton densit…
Theoretical calculations locate the critical point of strongly interacting matter (CP) at energies accessible at the CERN SPS. Event-by-event transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations are considered as one of the most important tools to search for the CP. Pilot studies of the energy dependence and the system size dependence of both $p_T$ and multiplicity fluctuations were performed by the NA49 experiment. The NA61/SHINE ion program is a continuation of these efforts. After briefly recalling the essential NA49 results on fluctuations we will discuss the technical methods (removing Non-T…
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study properties of the onset of deconfinement. It also to performs precise hadron production measurements for the neutrino and cosmic rays experiments. These goals will be achieved by measurements of hadron production properties in nucleus-nucleus, proton-proton and proton-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and size of the colliding nuclei, as well as pion-nucleus interactions. This contribution summarises the arguments of the ion program as well as presents the first physics r…
The measurements of open charm production was proposed as an important tool to investigate the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions as well as to provide the means for model independent interpretation of the existing data on $\text{J}/ψ$ suppression. Recently, the experimental setup of the NA61/SHINE experiment was supplemented with a Vertex Detector which was motivated by the importance and the possibility of the first direct measurements of open charm meson production in heavy ion collisions at SPS energies. First test data taken in December 2016 on Pb+Pb c…
NA61/SHINE is a multipurpose fixed-target facility at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The main goals of the NA61/SHINE strong interactions program are to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study the properties of the onset of deconfinement. To reach these goals, hadron production measurements are performed in the form of a two-dimensional scan by varying collision energy and system size. The Collaboration has recently finished data acquisition for its original program on strong interactions, accumulating broad data samples on hadron production in various systems …
NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS is a fixed-target experiment pursuing a rich physics program including measurements for heavy ion, neutrino and cosmic ray physics. The main goal of the ion program is to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and to search for the signatures of the critical point. A specific property of the critical point, the increase in the correlation length, makes fluctuations its basic signal. Higher order moments of suitable observables are of special interest as they are more sensitive to the correlation length than typically studied second order moments. In this …
The strong interactions programme of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS has been extended through the use of new silicon Vertex Detector, which allows for reconstructing open charm particles. The detector was designed to identify those particles by means of a precise reconstruction of their primary and secondary vertices. An initial version of the Vertex Detector, called SAVD (Small Acceptance Vertex Detector), was installed end of 2016. It was operated in a Pb+Pb calibration beam time in 2016, and with Xe+La in 2017. A further Pb+Pb beam time is scheduled for late 2018. The first indic…
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study the properties of the onset of deconfinement. For these goals a scan of the two dimensional phase diagram ($T$-$μ_{B}$) is being performed at the SPS by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and system size. In this contribution preliminary results on transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations expressed in terms of strongly intensive quantities from the Ar+Sc energy scan will be presented. T…
The NA61/SHINE strong interaction programme aims to explore the phase diagram of the strongly interacting matter. The main physics goals are the study of the onset of deconfinement and the search for the critical point of the strongly interacting matter. These goals are pursued by performing a scan in beam momentum (13A -- 158A GeV/c) and size of colliding system (p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb). This contribution presents new results on system size and energy dependence of multiplicity and net-charge fluctuations measured with higher-order moments of these distributions. Also, new resu…
The NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS is pursuing a rich programme on strong interactions, covering the study of onset of deconfinement and aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter by performing an energy and system-size scan at the full CERN SPS momentum range. These scans of p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc and Pb+Pb have been mostly completed with Xe+La last year (more Pb+Pb to to taken this year). Results from the different reactions are now emerging. As a surprise, some measurements did not scale smoothly. In particular, for the $\rm K^+/\piup^+$ ratio, Be+Be collisio…
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study the properties of the onset of deconfinement. For these goals a scan of the two dimensional phase diagram ($T$-$μ_{B}$) is being performed at the SPS by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and system size. In this contribution preliminary results on transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations expressed in terms of strongly intensive quantities from the Ar+Sc energy scan will be presented. T…
The study of open charm meson production provides an efficient tool for detailed investigations of the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. The interpretation of the existing data from the CERN SPS suffers from a lack of knowledge on the total charm production rate. To overcome this limitation the heavy-ion programme of the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN SPS has been expanded to allow for precise measurements of particles with a short lifetime. A new Small Acceptance Vertex Detector (SAVD) was designed and constructed to meet the challenges of open charm meas…
A new experimental program to study hadron production in collisions of nuclei at the CERN SPS is presented. The program will focus on measurements of fluctuations and long correlations with the aim to identify properties of the onset of deconfinement and search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter.
NA61/SHINE is an experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. The main goals of the experiment are the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter and the study of the properties of the onset of deconfinement. To reach these goals, the two-dimensional scan in beam momentum ($13A-150A$ GeV/$c$) and system size ($p$+$p$, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb) was performed. In the final stage of the collision, the spectra of protons are only weakly affected by the effects of resonance decays and rescattering due to their large mass. Thus, proton rapidity distribution is particularly se…
The aim of the NA61/SHINE strong interaction program is to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. The main physics goals are the study of the onset of deconfinement and the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter. These goals are pursued by performing a beam momentum (13$A$ - 158$A$ GeV/c) and system size (p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La) scan. This contribution presents results on transverse momentum and multiplicity fluctuations from the Be+Be and p+p energy scan. Also, results on two-particle correlations in pseudorapidity and azimuthal angle obtained …
NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS is a fixed-target experiment pursuing a rich physics program including measurements for heavy ion, neutrino and cosmic ray physics. The main goal of the ion program is to explore the most interesting $T, mu_{B}$ region of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. We plan to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and to search for the signatures of the critical point. The search is performed by varying collision energy (13A-158A GeV/c) and system size (p+p, Be+Be, Ar+Ca, Xe+La). Thanks to its large acceptance and excellent particle identification c…
Multiplicity fluctuations were investigated in Ar+Sc collisions at 13A, 19A, 30A, 40A, 75A, 150A GeV/c using the NA61/SHINE detector at the SPS. Centrality selection is based on the nucleon-spectator energy in the forward hemisphere as measured by the Projectile spectator detector. Preliminary results on the scaled variance ω and the strongly intensive measure Ω were obtained for the multiplicity distribution of all, negatively and positively charged hadrons. Results are discussed and compared with p+p results and Pb+Pb data of NA49 and EPOS 1.99 simulations.
Recently, the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS has extended its program on physics of strong interactions by measurements of charm hadron production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. This charm program is here briefly summarized.
NA61/SHINE has recently completed data acquisition for its original programme on strong interactions. The Collaboration has gathered rich data on collisions of ions in a two-dimensional scan: varying the beam energy and the sizes of colliding nuclei. The most recent analysis of hadron production in $^{40}$Ar+$^{45}$Sc and $^{7}$Be+$^{9}$Be interactions deliver some puzzling results which none of the theoretical models can reproduce.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) covers one of the most interesting regions of the QCD phase diagram $(T - μ_B)$. On the one hand there are indications that the energy threshold for deconfinement is reached already at low SPS energies. On the other hand theoretical calculations locate the QCD critical end-point at energies accessible at the SPS. In this paper the NA49 signatures of the onset of deconfinement are presented. Results are shown on pion production, the kaon to pion ratio, slopes of transverse mass spectra ("temperature"), and event-by-event particle ratio fluctuations versus coll…
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) at CERN covers one of the most interesting regions of the phase diagram (T - μ_{B}) of strongly interacting matter. The study of central Pb+Pb collisions by NA49 indicate that the threshold for deconfinement is reached already at the low SPS energies. Theoretical considerations predict a critical point of strongly interacting matter at energies accessible at the SPS. The NA61/SHINE experiment, a successor of the NA49 project, will study hadron production in p+p, p+A, h+A, and A+A reactions at various energies. The broad physics program includes the investigat…
The NA49 fixed-target experiment studied high energy-density matter produced in nucleus-nucleus reactions at the CERN SPS. In central Pb+Pb collisions at 158A GeV the energy density at the early stage substantially exceeds the threshold for quark deconfinement predicted by lattice QCD. The produced matter shows strong transverse and longitudinal flow. Ratios of yields of produced particles are approximately consistent with statistical equilibration. An energy scan through the SPS range revealed structure in the energy dependence of pion and kaon yields as well as of the inverse slopes of trans…
With the Large Hadron Collider entering its third year of granting us insight into the highest collision energies to date, one should nevertheless keep in mind the unexplored physics potential of lower energies. A prime example here is the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Using its large-acceptance hadronic spectrometer, SHINE aims to accomplish a number of physics goals: measuring spectra of identified hadrons in hadron-nucleus collisions to provide reference for accelerator neutrino experiments and cosmic-ray observatories, investigating particle properties in the …
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study the properties of the onset of deconfinement. For these goals a scan of the two dimensional phase diagram (T-$μ_B$) is being performed at the SPS by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and system size. In this contribution intriguing results on the energy dependence of hadron spectra and yields in inelastic p+p and centrality selected Be+Be collisions will be presented. In particular, the energy …
NA61/SHINE is a fixed target experiment operating at CERN SPS. Its main goals are to search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter and to study the onset of deconfinement. For these goals a scan of the two dimensional phase diagram ($T$-$μ_{B}$) is being performed at the SPS by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy. In this paper the status of the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter by the NA61/SHINE Collaboration is presented including recent results on proto…
This paper presents results and plans of the NA49 and NA61/SHINE experiments at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron concerning the study of relativistic nucleus-nucleus interactions. First, the NA49 evidence for the energy threshold of creating quark-gluon plasma, the onset of deconfinement, in central lead-lead collisions around 30A GeV is reviewed. Then the status of the NA61/SHINE systematic study of properties of the onset of deconfinement is presented. Second, the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter undertaken by both experiments is discussed. NA49 measured large fl…
The NA49 experiment at the CERN SPS measured the energy and system size dependence of particle production in A+A collisions. A change of the energy dependence of several hadron production properties at low SPS energies is observed which suggests a scenario requiring the onset of deconfinement.
Evidence for the onset of deconfinement in central Pb+Pb collisions was reported by NA49 in fixed target measurements at beam momentum 30A GeV/c. This observation motivated the NA61/SHINE program started in 2009 at the CERN SPS, which, in particular, aims to study properties of the onset of deconfinement by measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. This contribution presents spectra of charged pions produced in p+p interactions and $^7$Be+$^9$Be collisions at 20A-158A GeV/c beam momentum. The NA61/SHINE results are compared with the corr…
The main aims of the NA61/SHINE experiment are to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and to study properties of the onset of deconfinement. For this goal a two dimensional scan of the phase diagram (T-$μ_{B}$) is being performed at the SPS with measurements of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and system size. It is expected that fluctuations of various dynamical quantities will increase close to the critical point. In this contribution recent results of measurements of fluctuations in p…
The problem of pinning down the critical point of strongly interacting matter still puzzles the community. One of the answers suspected to emerge in the near future will surely come from NA61/SHINE - a fixed-target experiment aiming to discover the critical point as well as to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement. This goal will be pursued by obtaining precise data on hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions in a wide range of system size and collision energy. This contribution presents new results on inclusive spectra of identified hadr…
NA61/SHINE (SPS Heavy Ion and Neutrino Experiment) is a fixed target experiment located at the CERN SPS. Its strong interactions program is devoted to study properties of the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. For this goal the two-dimensional scan is performed by measurements of hadron production properties as a function of collision energy (13A - 158A GeV/$c$) and system size (p+p, p+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb). This contribution presents new results on the onset of deconfinement - the transition between the state of hadronic matter and the quark-gluon plasma. Also, new result…
The search for experimental signatures of the critical point (CP) of strongly interacting matter is one of the main objectives of the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN SPS. In the course of the experiment, a beam momentum and system size scan is performed. Local proton density fluctuations in transverse momentum space represent an order parameter of the chiral phase transition and are expected to scale according to a universal power-law in the vicinity of the CP; we probe their behavior through an intermittency analysis of the proton second scaled factorial moments (SSFMs) in transverse momentum s…
The main physics goals of the NA61/SHINE programme on strong interactions are the study of the properties of the onset of deconfinement and the search for signatures of the critical point of strongly interacting matter. For this purpose a scan of the two dimensional phase diagram ($T$-$μ_{B}$) is being performed at the SPS by measurements of hadron production in nucleus-nucleus collisions as a function of collision energy and system size. This contribution presents intriguing results on the energy dependence of hadron spectra and yields in inelastic p+p and centrality selected Be+Be and Ar+Sc …
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study the properties of the onset of deconfinement by measurements of hadron production properties in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions in the CERN SPS energy range. This contribution presents results on the energy dependence of hadron spectra and yields as well as on fluctuations and two-particle correlations in p+p and centrality selected Be+Be collisions. In particular, the energy dependence of the signal of deconfinement, the "horn", observed in central Pb+Pb collis…
The NA61/SHINE experiment at the SPS accelerator at CERN is a unique facility for the study of hadronic interactions at fixed target energies. The data collected with NA61/SHINE is relevant for a broad range of topics in cosmic-ray physics including ultrahigh-energy air showers and the production of secondary nuclei and anti-particles in the Galaxy. Here we present an update of the measurement of the momentum spectra of anti-protons produced in $π^-$+C interactions at 158 and 350 GeV/c and discuss their relevance for the understanding of muons in air showers initiated by ultrahigh-energy cosmi…
This paper briefly presents the NA61/SHINE facility at the CERN SPS and its measurements motivated by physics of strong interactions, neutrinos and cosmic rays.
Preliminary results on particle spectra and fluctuations in inelastic p+p interactions measured by NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS are presented and its future ion program is discussed. We also show results on the excitation functions of event-by-event particle ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from NA49 using a novel approach. We found a dependence of the results on phase space coverage which appears to explain the reported difference between measurements of NA49 and those of STAR in central Au+Au collisions.
NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS is a fixed-target experiment pursuing a rich physics program including measurements for heavy ion, neutrino and cosmic ray physics. The main goal of the strong interactions program is to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and to search for the signatures of the critical point. In this contribution the latest NA61/SHINE results on particle spectra as well as on fluctuations and correlations from p+p, Be+Be, and Ar+Sc energy scans will be presented. The NA61 measurements will be compared with world data and with model predictions.
The heavy-ion programme of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS has been expanded to allow precise measurements of exotic particles with short lifetime. The study of open charm meson production is a sensitive tool for new detailed investigations of the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. In particular, it offers new possibilities for studies of such phenomena as in-medium parton energy loss and quarkonium dissociation and possible regeneration, thus providing new information to probe deconfinement. A new high resolution Vertex Detector was designed for…
The existence of the critical point (CP) of strongly interacting matter is still an open problem. An extensive strong interactions program including a search of the CP and the study of the onset of deconfinement was started by the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN SPS. A two dimensional scan of the phase diagram scan is performed to search for the CP and to shed light on the phase transition region. This program includes studies of hadron production in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus interactions measured in a wide range of colliding energy and system size. Correlations betwe…
The exploration of the QCD phase diagram particularly the search for a phase transition from hadronic to partonic degrees of freedom and possibly a critical endpoint, is one of the most challenging tasks in present heavy-ion physics. As observed by the NA49 experiment, several hadronic observables in central Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS show qualitative changes in their energy dependence. These features are not observed in elementary interactions and indicate the onset of a phase transition in the SPS energy range. The existence of a critical point is expected to result in the increase of …
The NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS is a new experiment to study hadron production in p+p p+A, h+A and A+A interactions. The main goal of the NA61 ion program is to explore the phase diagram (T - mu_B) of strongly interacting matter. In particular, we plan to study the properties of the onset of deconfinement and to search for the signatures of the critical point. A two-dimensional scan of the phase diagram will be performed by varying the energy (13A-158A GeV) and system size (p+p, Be+Be, Ar+Ca, Xe+La) of collisions. This paper summarizes the status and plans of the NA61/SHINE ion program. In part…
The exploration of the QCD phase diagram is the most important task of present heavy ion experiments. In particular, we want to study the phase transition from hadronic to partonic matter and look for the critical point (CP) of strongly interacting matter. Fluctuations and correlations in kinematic characteristics and particle yields may help to locate the CP (in analogy to enlarged fluctuations due to critical opalescence close to a CP in a liquid/gas transition). The strong interactions program of the NA61/SHINE experiment may allow to discover or rule out the existence of the CP in the Supe…
The strong interactions programme of the NA61/SHINE experiment at CERN SPS has been extended through the use of new silicon Vertex Detector which provides precise measurements of exotic particles with short lifetime. The detector was designed to meet the challenges of primary and secondary vertexes reconstruction at high spatial resolution. An initial version of the Vertex Detector called SAVD (Small Acceptance Vertex Detector) was installed last end of 2016, and data was from Pb+Pb collisions was collected in 2016, for Xe+La in 2017, as well as further Pb+Pb collisions this year. First indica…
The NA61/SHINE experiment aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter and study properties of the onset of deconfinement. It also performs precise hadron production measurements for the neutrino and cosmic rays experiments. These goals are being achieved by measurements of hadron production properties in nucleus-nucleus, proton-proton and proton/pion-nucleus interactions as a function of collision energy and size of the colliding nuclei. This contribution presents preliminary results from the NA61 ion program on single-particle spectra and identified particle multiplicit…
