HEAVY ION PHYSICS AT THE SPS - HIPS'98

                      Third Announcement


Dear Colleagues,

The workshop to discuss the results presently available from the SPS
Heavy Ion programme will be held, during the week-end September 25-27,
in Chamonix, in the Centre de Congres "Le Majestic" (where other CERN
related meetings are sometimes held).

Transport by bus from Geneva to Chamonix (and back) will be offered by
CERN to the participants.  In order to define the time schedule and
other details we need to know who is interested in this service.

The participants will be accommodated in the Hotel Frantour, located
at walking distance from the meeting site.  The total accomodation
cost for the two nights (for single room, including breakfast) amounts
to 540 FF, to be payed directly by each participant.  All the meals
and coffee breaks, including the welcome dinner (buffet style) on
Friday evening will be offered by CERN.  As you know, participation is
by invitation only.

On Saturday we will review the status of the experimental data, in
four discussion sessions, each one opened by a review talk addressing
the points raised in advance by the community.  The topics are :

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

The four people that will provide "status of the art" reports on the
experimental results are, respectively, Axel Drees, Enrico Scomparin,
Orlando Villalobos Baillie and Nu Xu.  You are requested to send us,
*well in advance*, the points you would like to see addressed in each
of these talks.  This way, the speakers will be able to take your
input into account when preparing their talks.  This meeting is a good
opportunity to clarify the doubts you may have concerning the results
presently available from the several SPS HI experiments, but the
clarification of those doubts might require some extensive homework.

There will be time for two or three 10-minute communications per
topic.  If you want to make such a short communication, send us the
title and a short abstract so that we can prepare the final program.

On Sunday morning the discussion will be devoted to the interpretation
of the data.  This session will be convened by Berndt Mueller and
Ulrich Heinz, who will open the session with their views on what we
have learned after 12 years of data and what are the remaining open
questions.  Time will be available for round table discussions and for
short contributions by the participants.  Let the conveners know about
any short communication you might want to contribute to this session.

On Sunday afternoon we will identify and evaluate the options for the
experimental activity at CERN, in the SPS Heavy Ion programme, around
the year 2000.  This session will be convened by Jurgen Schukraft.


After the meeting, we will prepare a (short) report which should
address the following points :

* Assess the present status of this hot and fascinating field, as it
  emerges from the present results of the SPS Heavy Ion programme
* List the remaining open questions
* Evaluate the physics issues for which the SPS fixed target programme
  remains competitive in the near future

It would be precious if this report could be ready in time to be an
element of the annual report of the Director General at the December
meeting of Council.


Please reply to this mail confirming your participation, listing the
issues you would like to see debated in each discussion session and
clarifying if you are interested in the transportation from/to Geneva
(mentioning eventual time constrains for the departure of the bus).
We have pre-booked single rooms for all of you.  If you prefer a double
room, let us know which two people would share it.


Further information on this effort can be found on our web page :

http://www.cern.ch/HIPS/



Best regards,

             Axel Drees and Carlos Lourenco

(with the encouragement and support of Lorenzo Foa)