Heavy-ion collisions and the nuclear equation of state

The overall goal of this project is to study nucleus-nucleus collisions experimentally at intermediate and relativistic energies, with emphasis on measurement and interpretation of correlation effects that provide insight into the nuclear phase diagram and the nuclear equation of state. During the past year, the PI has been on leave at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and has worked on this research project full-time. A large fraction of the effort of the PI and graduate students has gone into preparing for experiments using the Time Projection Chamber at LBL's Bevalac accelerator; in March 1992, this device successfully took data in production mode for the first time, and the first physics analysis is now under way. The PI has carried out simulations that help to define the physics performance and engineering specifications of the recently-approved STAR detector for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and has identified a new capability of this device with the potential for being an important quark-gluon plasma signature. A Postdoctoral Fellow, jointly supported by this grant and Kent State University, has been recruited to augment these efforts. Since May 1991, 11 journal papers have been published or submitted for publication; 2 conference proceedings and 9 reports or abstracts have also been published during the past year. One paper in Phys. Rev. Left., one in Phys. Rev. C, and one conference proceedings are based on the thesis project of one of the PI's Ph.D. students who is expected to graduate later this year. Partly in response to the impending closure of the Bevalac, the PI's group has recently joined the NA49 experiment at CERN