24thSep 2004	Astroparticle physics with the AMS experiment	talk in pdf
14:30	Bruny Baret (LPSC - Grenoble)

Abstract: AMS is a magnetic spectrometer which will be installed for three years on the International Space Station in 2008. It is dedicated to the detection of Cosmic Rays in the energy range 100MeV-1TeV per nucleon and will accumulate statistics at a level 3 or 4 orders of magnitude higher than the existing measurements. The instrument and its physics perspectives like Dark Matter indirect detection or Primordial Antimatter search will be first presented. The presentation will turn to the more specific issue of light antimatter nuclei production in the atmosphere. This phenomenon as a background has to be precisely known and characterised for every study involving antimatter detection at balloon and satellite altitude.

15thOct 2004	The Foundations of Gravitation Theory: the Equivalence Principle and the current status of experiments	talk in pdf
14:30	Raffaella Toncelli (ULB)

Abstract: The Equivalence Principle (EP) has historically played an important role in the development of gravitation theory. As early as the 16th century Galileo understood that all bodies, whatever their mass and composition, fall with the same acceleration in the gravitational field (Universality of Free Fall - UFF) and for the first time he made some experiments to provide experimental evidence for it. Later, Newton introduced the concept of inertial and gravitational mass and his formulation of the law of gravitational attraction showed how the UFF and the EP -for which the gravitational mass must be the same as the inertial mass- are linked. But the birth of General Relativity, at the beginning of 20th century, has put experiments on the EP in a new perspective. In 1907 Einstein formulated a stronger equivalence principle (Einstein Equivalence Principle - EPP) stating that there is a complete physical equivalence between a gravitational field and an accelerated reference frame. EEP is in fact the heart of General Relativity, because if the EEP is valid then gravitation must be a curved spacetime, and the only theories of gravity that can embody EEP are those that satisfy the postulates of metric theories of gravity. Since that moment, testing the EP has become an important check to probe the foundations of General Relativity itself. In this lecture we shall present a brief introduction on EP, summarize the current status of experiments and consider the novelty of testing the EP in space. In particular, we will describe and compare three missions currently under investigation by independent laboratories around the world: MICROSCOPE (France), STEP (USA) and GG (Italy).

5thNov 2004	On the quark-gluon plasma search	talk in ps.gz
14:30	Dr. S. Hamieh (KVI - Nederland)

Abstract: Thermal and dynamical properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) will be shown. The enhancement of strange baryon and antibaryon, per participant nucleon, observed by the WA97 collaboration at CERN will be discussed. Two-proton spin correlation measurement will be shown as potential test of the QGP formation.

9thNov 2004	Beautiful Little Bang with ALICE
14:30	Dr. Tariq Mahmoud (Heidelberg)

Abstract: The Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD) is the established theory which describes strong interactions. Although confinement of quarks and gluons (partons) is a fundamental property of QCD, the theory predicts a phase transition from the hadronic state into a new strongly interacting system with high energy density, where quarks and gluons are deconfined. This state, called Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP), occurs if the temperature (energy) of a nuclear system becomes comparable with the QCD-constant, Lambda_QCD = 200 MeV, or if its pressure (baryon density) exceeds about ten times the normal nuclear density (0.15 1/fm). In the laboratory the QGP state can be realized within Heavy-Ion-Collisions (HIC) where heavy ions (Pb, Au, etc.) collide with fixed targets or head-on with each other. Quarkonium states (Charmonium (J/psi(-family) and Bottonium (Upsilon-family)) are one of the most important and promising QGP-signatures. They are studied via their di-lepton decays (QQ->ee, mu-mu). In the last two decades many fixed-target experiments were carried out with different nuclei and at different energies. In 2000 the collider era started with the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at a cms energy of 200~AGeV. In 2007 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will start its program at a cms energy of 5.5ATeV in HIC. At LHC, ALICE is the dedicated experiment to study the phase transition and the QGP properties with an extensive HIC program. Therefore it is designed to cover all known signatures of the QGP. Its sub-detectors cover different but large acceptance and they are able to identify hadrons (TPC, TOF, HMPID), leptons (TPC, TRD, Muon arm) and photons (PHOS). The challenge in the Quarkonium sector is the rarity of the produced Quarkonia in a collision. Therefore the sub-detectors of ALICE must be able to identify their leptonic decay products and reject the large amount of produced hadrons (mostly pions). The muon-channel will be studied in the muon arm and the electron channel will be studied in three detectors of the central barrel (ITS, TPC and TRD). Electrons and pions are identified and separated via energy deposit in the TPC and TRD and via transition radiation in the TRD. The TRD allows a rejection of up to 99% of the abundant background of pions. The simulated (TPC) and measured (TRD) pion rejection capability of the detectors are used, together with the detector response (efficiency and resolution), in a simulation package to study the physics performance of ALICE in the Quarkonium sector. In particular the role of the TRD is underlined. The results as well as an overview on the Quarkonia as a QGP signature will be presented.