HEAVY ION PHYSICS AT THE SPS - HIPS'98

                      Second Announcement


The initiative of having a workshop to discuss in a consistent way the
results presently available from the SPS Heavy Ion Physics programme
has received a very positive response.  We attach at the end of this
second announcement the current list of participants.  In view of the
constraints expressed by the invited people, the meeting will take
place during the week-end September 25-27, in a hotel close to Geneva.
The participants are expected to arrive on Friday evening, for a first
exchange of ideas during a welcome cocktail.  The meeting will end on
Sunday, around 17 h.

The discussions will be focussed on the open questions concerning the
data, on how to relate the various observables and on which scenarios
can be ruled out by the present results.  The program of the meeting
is organised in the following three sections.


1) Critically review the experimental evidence, from the different
   experiments, for :

- low mass dilepton enhancement and direct photon emission
- J/psi suppression
- strangeness enhancement
- collective behaviour, thermal and chemical equilibration, flow, hbt

For each of these four topics, the discussion will be launched by a
review talk.  All the participants are requested to send us, before
the end of May, the points they would like to see addressed in each of
these topics.  We will collect your input and make it available to the
four speakers so that they can take it into account when preparing
their talks.  The participants are welcome to prepare communications
on any of the issues listed above.  Send us a few lines with a title
and abstract, so that we can organise a more detailed program.  These
communications must be kept as short as possible (order 10 minutes)
so that we keep a comfortable time for the round table discussions.


2) Explore the connections among different observables and how they
   constrain the possible interpretations

A lively discussion on this part will be guaranteed by a few invited
talks, covering recent attempts to combine several observables in a
single broad framework.  Most of the time will be kept available for
round table discussions, including short contributions by all the
participants.


3) Identify the open questions and evaluate the options for the near
   future SPS Heavy Ion programme

This final part of the meeting will be more loosely organised.  All
the participants are encouraged to bring their ideas and proposals so
that we can have a very active open discussion on the future of Heavy
Ion Physics at the SPS.


The ideal outcome of this workshop would be to converge on a few pages
reflecting the discussions held, to be compiled in time for the report
of CERN's Director General to the Council, at the end of 1998.  Such a
(short) report should include the following points :

*  A summary of the general understanding of the field, as it emerges
from the present results of the SPS Heavy Ion programme

*  A list of the remaining open questions that prevent our community
from reaching more conclusive statements

*  An evaluation of the physics issues for which the SPS fixed target
programme remains competitive after RHIC's startup


Best regards,
                               Axel Drees and Carlos Lourenco


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People that have already expressed their intention to participate :

Federico Antinori, Terry Awes, Peter Braun-Munzinger, Nicola Carrer,
Olivier Drapier, Axel Drees, Christian Fabjan, Daniel Ferenc,
Marek Gazdzicki, Claudie Gerschel, Sonja Kabana, Louis Kluberg,
Carlos Lourenco, Dariusz Miskowiec, Guy Paic, Thomas Peitzmann,
Klaus Pretzl, Emanuele Quercigh, Dieter Roehrich, Jurgen Schukraft,
Enrico Scomparin, Peter Seyboth, Peter Sonderegger, Hans Specht,
Johanna Stachel, Reinhard Stock, Johannes Wessels, Nu Xu

Ulrich Heinz, Volker Koch, Berndt Mueller, Jean-Yves Ollitrault,
Helmut Satz, Edward Shuryak, Horst Stoecker, Jochen Wambach