Status of the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment will investigate high-energy heavy-ion collisions at the international Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), which is under construction in Darmstadt, Germany. The CBM research program is focused on the exploration of QCD matter at neutron star core densities, such as study of the equation-of-state and the search for phase transitions. Key experimental observables include (multi-) strange (anti-) particles, electron-positron pairs and dimuons, particle correlations and fluctuations, and hyper-nuclei. In order to measure these diagnostic probes multi-differentially with unprecedented precision, the CBM detector and data acquisition systems are designed to run at reaction rates up to 10 MHz. This requires the development of fast and radiation hard detectors and readout electronics for track reconstruction, electron and muon identification, time-of-flight (TOF) determination and event characterization. The data are read-out by ultra-fast, radiation-tolerant, and free-streaming front-end electronics, and then transferred via radiation-hard data aggregation units and high-speed optical connections to a high-performance computing center. A fast and highly parallelized software will perform online track reconstruction, particle identification and event analysis. The components of the CBM experimental setup will be discussed and results of physics performance studies will be presented.

Simultaneous muon and reference hadron measurements in the compressed baryonic matter experiment at FAIR

The mission of the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt is to explore the QCD phase diagram at high net baryon densities likely to exist in the core of neutron stars. The CBM detector system is designed to perform multi-differential measurements of hadrons and leptons in central gold-gold collisions at beam energies between 2 and 11 A GeV with unprecedented precision and statistics. In order to reduce the systematic errors of the lepton measurements, which generally suffer from a large combinatorial background, both electrons and muons will be measured with the same acceptance. Up to now, no di-muon measurements have been performed in heavy-ion collisions at beam energies below 158 A GeV. The main device for electron identification, a Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector, can be replaced by a setup comprising hadron absorbers and tracking detectors for muon measurements. In order to obtain a complete picture of the reaction, it is important to measure simultaneously leptons and hadrons. This requirement is fulfilled for the RICH, which has a low material budget, and only little affects the trajectories of hadrons on their way to the Time-of-Flight (TOF) detector. In contrast, the simultaneous measurement of muons and hadrons within the same experimental acceptance poses a substantial challenge. This article reviews the simulated performance of the CBM experiment for muon identification, together with the possibility of simultaneous hadron measurements.

Exploring Cosmic Matter in the Laboratory—The Compressed Baryonic Matter Experiment at FAIR

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment is one of four scientific pillars of the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt. In collisions between heavy nuclei at FAIR energies, it is expected that the matter in the reaction zone is compressed to more than five times saturation density, corresponding to the density in the core of a massive neutron star. This offers the unique opportunity to study in the laboratory the high-density equation-of-state (EOS) of nuclear matter, and to search for new phases of Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) matter at large baryon-chemical potentials. Promising experimental observables sensitive to the EOS and to possible phase transitions will be discussed, together with a brief description of the CBM experiment.

Performance Studies for Strange Hadron Flow Measurements in CBM at FAIR

Measurements of the directed and elliptic flow of strange and multi-strange hadrons are an important part of the physics program of the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment (CBM) at the future accelerator complex FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany. We present recent results from the CBM performance studies for measurements of the directed (

The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

The CBM experiment will investigate highly compressed baryonic matter created in A+A collisions at the new FAIR research center. With a beam energy range up to 11 AGeV for the heaviest nuclei at the SIS 100 accelerator, CBM will investigate the QCD phase diagram in the intermediate range, i.e. at moderate temperatures but high net-baryon densities. This intermediate range of the QCD phase diagram is of particular interest, because a first order phase transition ending in a critical point and possibly new highdensity phases of strongly interacting matter are expected. In this range of the QCD phase diagram only exploratory measurements have been performed so far. CBM, as a next generation, high-luminosity experiment, will substantially improve our knowledge of matter created in this region of the QCD phase diagram and characterize its properties by measuring rare probes such as multi-strange hyperons, dileptons or charm, but also with event-by-event fluctuations of conserved quantities, and collective flow of identified particles. The experimental preparations with special focus on hadronic observables and strangeness is presented in terms of detector development, feasibility studies and fast track reconstruction. Preparations are progressing well such that CBM will be ready with FAIR start. As quite some detectors are ready before, they will be used as upgrades or extensions of already running experiments allowing for a rich physics program prior to FAIR start.

Cosmic matter in the laboratory - the Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment will be one of the major scientific pillars of the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt. The goal of the CBM research program is to explore the QCD phase diagram in the region of high baryon densities using high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. This includes the study of the equation-of-state of nuclear matter at neutron star core densities, and the search for the deconfinement and chiral phase transitions. The CBM detector is designed to measure rare diagnostic probes such as hadrons including multi-strange (anti-) hyperons, lepton pairs, and charmed particles with unprecedented precision and statistics. Most of these particles will be studied for the first time in the FAIR energy range. In order to achieve the required precision, the measurements will be performed at very high reaction rates of 1 to 10 MHz. This requires very fast and radiation-hard detectors, a novel data read-out and analysis concept based on free streaming front-end electronics, and a high-performance computing cluster for online event selection. The physics program and the status of the proposed CBM experiment will be discussed.