About the Working Groups

The BNL Physics Department is organizing a series of meetings among theorists and experimenters from throughout the interested scientific community to focus on the central questions that will drive the next phase of RHIC physics.

The November 2004 workshop was a kick-off meeting, to collect ideas and topics for future workshops, and assemble community-wide working groups.

At the November workshop we had an extensive discussion of how the RHIC community should best organize itself to refine the science agenda for the next phase of RHIC research, to fully understand the science drivers for the RHIC II upgrades, and make a compelling scientific case for these upgrades to the broader nuclear physics community and to the young generation of RHIC scientists.

The plan agreed upon at the workshop is to initiate a set of Working Groups, aligned along the various classes of measurements that probe the phenomena of interest in RHIC collisions. The purpose of these Working Groups is to provide an organized way for the community to refine the science agenda for the RHIC II upgrades, and make a compelling case for these upgrades to the broad nuclear physics community. The forum for presenting this case is the DOE/NSF Long Range Plan process, which is now expected to be launched in 2006, and conclude in 2007.

The broad charge for each of these working groups is as follows:

1. Identify which of the physics questions can be addressed by the class of measurements to be studied by the working group, and outline the structure of a scientific program that can successfully attack these questions and lead to convincing answers.
2. Identify the compelling questions that can be addressed with RHIC II that are unique to RHIC and cannot be addressed at the LHC. Which provide crucial complementary information to the planned LHC measurements?
3. Specify the required information, kinematic range, statistical precision, and required beam combinations to address the physics questions. What technical advances (experimental and theoretical) are required beyond the capabilities currently in place at RHIC?

The medium for posting information about this process, and for communicating among the Working Groups, is this website. You may register to join one or more working groups online. See a list of those who have registered.

Last Modified: February 4, 2008

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