sPHENIX is a new detector at RHIC.

[Christine Nattrass <saccharomyces.cerevisae AT gmail.com>]

    Dear sPHENIX
    
    Abstracts for DNP are due Fri. June 26.  There is a strong
    possibility this will be an online meeting.  When you submit your
    abstract, you will select whether you would present it in person
    only, online only, or either.  I would VERY strongly recommend that
    students and post docs and possibly faculty submit abstracts to
    present at DNP, particularly if it is online.  Historically,
    abstract submission at DNP from heavy ion physicists has been low
    and this has hurt the field's standing within the broader US nuclear
    physics community, where this is a major meeting.  The (literal)
    cost to participate is fairly low for an online meeting.  There will
    be a small registration fee if it is online to cover the costs of
    hosting an online meeting.  I also think it provides an excellent
    opportunity to get experience speaking.  It would also be good for
    sPHENIX to have a lot of talks there.
    
    I would also like to highlight the Conference Experience for
    Undergraduates.  Obviously this is going to be very different for an
    online conference, but I think it'll still be a great way for
    undergraduate to get exposure to conferences.  There will still be
    some kind of graduate fair as well, even if it is online.  That
    deadline is July 31. 
    
    There will also be a mini-symposium: Probing nucleons and nuclei
      in ultra-peripheral collisions and with vector-mesons
    Using ultra-peripheral proton-proton and nucleus-nucleus collisions
    both at RHIC and the LHC, the interaction between the
    Weizsacker-Williams photon flux and the proton or nucleus can be
    studied. This provides a unique opportunity to investigate small
    Bjorken-x gluon dynamics at photon intensities and energies that are
    unavailable elsewhere. The top of the accessible energy range is a
    factor of ten higher than that of the EIC, which offers a unique
    opportunity to explore this novel kinematic regime. Recently there
    is also new interest to use ultra-peripheral collisions to constrain
    the initial conditions for the subsequent evolution of the
    Quark-Gluon Plasma. Despite the recent experimental and theoretical
    progress, more work is needed to engage both communities, and to
    work on the synergies between UPC studies and the EIC is needed. The
    goal of this session is to identify and discuss the theoretical
    challenges of ultra-peripheral collisions, and how to use
    experimental knowledge from these collisions to prepare for the EIC.
    
    You can find more information here 
    https://www.aps.org/meetings/meeting.cfm?name=DNP20
    
-- 
Greetings,
Dr. Christine Nattrass
--
she, her, hers
Associate Professor
Physics Department
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Office:  SERF 609
Office Hours:  10:15-11:15 Mon. & 3-4 Wed.
Address:
1408 Circle Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996
phone number at UTK: (865) 974-6211
http://web.utk.edu/~cnattras