Speaker
Description
The high-intensity beams from the CERN SPS, available across a wide energy range, provide a unique opportunity to explore the QCD phase diagram at high baryochemical potential $\mu_B$. The NA60+/DiCE experiment, proposed to collect data from heavy-ion collisions at the SPS starting in 2030, has strong potential to investigate this diagram via precision measurements of electromagnetic probes in a beam-energy scan of Pb-Pb and p-A collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 6-17$ GeV.
This talk will describe the NA60+/DiCE physics program for thermal dimuons. A precision measurement of the $\rho$ yield will enable a precise determination of the fireball lifetime and a search for anomalous behavior versus $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ that could signal a first-order phase transition.
The experiment will also probe the $\rho$--$a_1$ chiral mixing mechanism, accessing $a_1$ properties via the thermal dimuon spectrum in the $1 < M < 1.4$ GeV range.
For masses above 1.5 GeV, the source temperature can be extracted directly by spectral fitting. NA60+/DiCE aims to determine, for the first time, a caloric curve (temperature vs. beam energy), focusing on $\sqrt{s_{NN}}<10$ GeV—a key region for mapping the phase transition at high $\mu_B$.
Finally, the competitiveness and complementarity of NA60+/DiCE in the landscape of future experiments will be discussed.
| Is this an experimental talk? | Yes |
|---|---|
| Is this on behalf of a collaboration? | Yes |
| Which collaboration? | NA60+/DiCE |
| Are you willing to present as a poster if it is not selected for oral presentation? | Yes |