The future fixed-target program at the CERN SPS
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 region of the QCD phase diagram.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.22328,
title = {The future fixed-target program at the CERN SPS},
author = {Enrico Scomparin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.22328},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
6 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the Strangeness in Quark Matter 2026 International Conference