Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

Substantial experimental and theoretical efforts worldwide are devoted to explore the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter. At LHC and top RHIC energies, QCD matter is studied at very high temperatures and nearly vanishing net-baryon densities. There is evidence that a Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP) was created at experiments at RHIC and LHC. The transition from the QGP back to the hadron gas is found to be a smooth cross over. For larger net-baryon densities and lower temperatures, it is expected that the QCD phase diagram exhibits a rich structure, such as a first-order phase transition between hadronic and partonic matter which terminates in a critical point, or exotic phases like quarkyonic matter. The discovery of these landmarks would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the strong interaction and is therefore in the focus of various high-energy heavy-ion research programs. The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR will play a unique role in the exploration of the QCD phase diagram in the region of high net-baryon densities, because it is designed to run at unprecedented interaction rates. High-rate operation is the key prerequisite for high-precision measurements of multi-differential observables and of rare diagnostic probes which are sensitive to the dense phase of the nuclear fireball. The goal of the CBM experiment at SIS100 (sqrt(s_NN) = 2.7 - 4.9 GeV) is to discover fundamental properties of QCD matter: the phase structure at large baryon-chemical potentials (mu_B > 500 MeV), effects of chiral symmetry, and the equation-of-state at high density as it is expected to occur in the core of neutron stars. In this article, we review the motivation for and the physics programme of CBM, including activities before the start of data taking in 2022, in the context of the worldwide efforts to explore high-density QCD matter.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Published in European Physical Journal

Remarks on the evaluation of thermodynamic data for sulfate Ion protonation

A thorough search of the scientific literature under the auspices of the IUPAC Sub-Committee on Solubility and Equilibrium Data (SSED) has identified and compiled quantitative thermodynamic data for the first sulfate protonation step from about 270 papers, reports, books and electronic databases. A critical evaluation of these sources using well-defined criteria has rejected about half of them. The remaining (‘accepted’) data reveal that the standard state values of the first protonation constant of the sulfate ion, Ko1, corresponding to the equilibrium: SO2−4(aq)+ H+(aq)⇌HSO−4(aq) at infinite dilution, are known to good levels of accuracy up to ~ 250 °C. However, at higher temperatures, and at all temperatures in the presence of added electrolytes, the equilibrium constant values are much less certain. The corresponding values for the enthalpy (ΔrHo1), entropy (ΔrSo1) and isobaric heat capacity (ΔrCop,1) changes are also moderately well determined at near-ambient temperatures but are much more poorly defined both at higher temperatures and in the presence of even modest concentrations of added electrolytes. Comments on a number of aspects of the data and their evaluation are provided