Announcing a Competition
As an outcome of INT '98 spring
program on “Probes of Dense Matter in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions” and to underscore the program’s effort,
we announce here a RHIC theory competition for the best prediction for the
first experimental measurements to be done at RHIC. We urge those theorists (and experimentalists) who are currently doing
model calculations of various physical observable to make their best estimates
at RHIC energy. At the end, we will compile these estimates as an INT
publication. We understand that it is much more difficult to make a prediction
than postdiction. However, such an effort, even though very modest, will help
us to understand the data in the first few years after RHIC starts running. So
we urge you to make your best effort. A case of wine is offered as a prize for
most closely predicting, before RHIC runs, what will be seen.
Ground rules:
- Predictions must be submitted to the organizers by December 31, 1999. We will compile and disseminated the predictions to the nuclear physics community.
- Predictions of measurements from the first two years of RHIC running qualify.
- Predictions based on trivial or well-known scaling (i.e. Drell-Yan from simple N-N collisions) do not qualify.
- Predictions must be quantitative and based upon "reasonable assumptions" whose justification is given along with the prediction. Verification of assumptions by data from lower energy heavy ion collisions is encouraged.
- Predictions should take into account detector acceptance, so that they may be directly and reliably compared to the data.
- In case of a tie, the case can be split. A winning entry can be either by an individual or a group. If a group wins, splitting the wine is their problem!
- The organizers are barred from voting upon their own entries.
The prize will be provided, and
winners chosen, by the organizers of the program: Xin-Nian Wang, Barbara Jacak
and Joe Kapusta.
.
Xin-Nian Wang (510-486-5239) xnwang@lbl.gov
Barbara V. Jacak (516-632-6041) jacak@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu
Joseph I. Kapusta (612-624-0506) kapusta@physics.spa.umn.edu