Overview of results from NA61/SHINE

TL;DR

NA61/SHINE is a CERN SPS fixed-target experiment studying heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies, providing recent results relevant to other major research programs in high-energy nuclear physics.

Contribution

This paper summarizes recent findings from NA61/SHINE, highlighting their significance for ongoing and future heavy ion collision research.

Findings

Results relevant to LHC, FAIR, and RHIC programs

Collision energy regime studied: 5.1 to 27.4 GeV

Emphasis on results of greatest importance for other research programs

Abstract

NA61/SHINE is a multipurpose, fixed-target spectrometer operating at the CERN SPS. The studied regime of collision energies, 5.1<\sqrt{s_{NN}}<16.8/27.4 GeV, places the project in-between the two main European heavy ion activities of the coming decade, the continued LHC (0.9<\sqrt{s_{NN}}<14 TeV) and the announced FAIR SIS100 (2.7<\sqrt{s_{NN}}<4.9 GeV) programs. Also, the project partially overlaps with RHIC BES and STAR-FXT (3<\sqrt{s_{NN}}<62.4 GeV, with data taking completed). This contribution gives a subjective summary of the recent results from NA61/SHINE, with particular emphasis on these of greatest importance for the other research programs.