Speaker: Dr. Christine Aidala (P-25)

Title: The PHENIX Decadal Plan: Crafting the Future of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider

Abstract:
After 11 years of running, the PHENIX and STAR Collaborations are laying out the compelling physics that RHIC, as the most versatile hadron collider in the world, will be well positioned to explore beyond the program planned for upgrades already in progress.  As the fields that RHIC set out to investigate have advanced and evolved, new questions and directions have arisen at the frontiers of QCD, and we have exciting opportunities before us to continue to confront the challenges and surprises of strong interactions into the next decade.  Some of the physics prospects and possible strategies under discussion to evolve the PHENIX detector and RHIC in this ongoing planning process for the future of the facility will be presented.