This year’s INT/RHIC winter workshop, "First Two Years of RHIC: Theory versus Experiments” will be held at the INT from December 13-15, 2002. The theme of the workshop, which is open to all interested physicists, will be on theoretical predictions made before the first RHIC data. These include both the predictions submitted to the RHIC theory competition organized by Jacak, Kapusta and Wang during the INT Program in 1998 on “Probes on Dense Matter in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions” and contributions to the RHIC prediction session during Quark Matter 1999 in Torino. After overviews on the RHIC experimental data collected over the last two years, the submitted predictions will be closely examined and compared to the RHIC data. During the process, winners of the prediction competition will be selected. Emphasis will be given to questions that are important and timely for understanding the underlying physics of heavy-ion collisions and resolving some of the puzzles at RHIC: What is the real mechanism for the observed particle production which is lower than what was commonly expected? Does the hydrodynamic behavior of the elliptic flow imply early partonic thermalization? What quantitative conclusions can one draw from the observed jet quenching or suppression of large transverse momentum hadrons?

One can find the contributions to the prediction competition at: http://www-hpc.lbl.gov/prediction/

Barbara Jacak, jacak@skipper.physics.sunysb.edu
Joe Kapusta, kapusta@physics.spa.umn.edu
Yuri Kovchegov, yuri@phys.washington.edu
Xin-Nian Wang, xnwang@lbl.gov

Program Coordinator: Laura Lee, lee@phys.washington.edu

Room Block Information

A block of rooms has been reserved at the University Inn. The rate for a single occupancy traditional room is $85.00/night plus 15.6% tax. The rate for a single occupancy deluxe room is $95.00/night plus 15.6% tax.

Please contact the University Inn directly to reserve your room via one of the following means:
Toll free: 800.733.3855
Direct or International: 206.632.5055
Fax: 206.547.4937
E-mail: reservations@universityinnseattle.com

Be sure to mention the RHIC CONFERENCE ROOM BLOCK when making your reservation in order to get the room rates quoted above.

The rooms in the room block will be released on Monday, October 28, 2002. Please make your reservation as soon as possible.

Visa Information:

If you are not a U.S. citizen, please contact Linda Vilett (vilett@phys.washington.edu) immediately so she may advise you about the type of visa you need in order to be reimbursed.