name : Kenta Shigaki

affiliation : High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)

title : Physics via Lepton Channels at RHIC/PHENIX

abstract :

The first physics data taking at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) is starting in 2000, with the ultimate goal to create, to
observe, and to understand the nature of a new phase of matter
predicted by QCD, a deconfined quark-gluon plasma phase, and to
investigate QCD in extreme conditions and/or scales.

Heavy ion programs at CERN SPS suggested possible onsets of the QCD
phase transition.  RHIC is expected to provide a much higher energy
density and a clearer environment, and hoped to allow conclusive
experimental results to be drawn.

At CERN, so-called transparent probes of the early stage of
high-energy nuclear reactions have been proved to be a powerful tool.
The PHENIX experiment at RHIC features systematic studies of the
physics probes of particular interest via single- and di-lepton
channels, in conjunction with photon and hadron measurement in the
single experiment.

The experimental approaches and physics prospects via lepton channels
at RHIC/PHENIX will be discussed along with PHENIX capabilities.