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arXiv · 2607.22328

The future fixed-target program at the CERN SPS

Enrico Scomparin
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Abstract

The CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) can currently accelerate heavy ions in the energy range from 13.5 up to 150 A GeV and deliver them to fixed-target experiments. It is the facility where Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) experimental studies began in 1986. After a first phase until 2000, with several fundamental discoveries made by a number of dedicated experiments, the physics program continued until today with the NA60 (dileptons, 2003-2004) and NA61 (hadronic observables, from 2009) experiments. As of today, a continuation of QGP studies, after the current shutdown of CERN accelerators, is foreseen, involving NA61 and a newly approved experiments, NA60+/DiCE. In this contribution, I will briefly describe the main achievements of the CERN SPS program, discuss the proposed new measurements and their impact on our knowledge of the QGP in the finite $\mu_{\rm B}$ region of the QCD phase diagram.

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Enrico Scomparin. 2026-07-24. The future fixed-target program at the CERN SPS. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.22328

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