The SPS ion program and the first LHC data

TL;DR

This paper discusses two parallel experimental programs at CERN studying nucleus-nucleus collisions, with SPS focusing on lower energies and LHC providing high-energy data, revealing insights into deconfinement and strongly interacting matter.

Contribution

It highlights the first simultaneous operation of SPS and LHC programs and shows how LHC results support earlier SPS findings on deconfinement.

Findings

LHC data supports SPS discovery of the onset of deconfinement

First LHC Pb+Pb collision data at 2760 GeV recorded

NA61/SHINE investigates critical point and deconfinement properties

Abstract

For the first time in the CERN history two experimental programs devoted to study nucleus-nucleus collisions at high energies are performed in parallel. In the SPS ion program, carried out by NA61/SHINE, interactions of light and medium size ions in the energy range 5-20 GeV are investigated. The program aims to discover the critical point of strongly interacting matter as well as establish properties of the onset of deconfinement. In 2010 ALICE, ATLAS and CMS at LHC recorded first data on Pb+Pb collisions at the highest energy reached up to now, 2760 GeV. This opens a new exciting area in the field of heavy ion collisions. The relation between the two programs is discussed in this presentation. Surprisingly, the first LHC results strongly support the NA49 discovery of the onset of deconfinement and thus further experimental study of nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN SPS.