2025 RHIC/AGS Annual Users' Meeting

May 20, 2025, 8:00 AM → May 23, 2025, 6:00 PM US/Eastern

Anders Knospe (Lehigh University), Isaac Mooney (Yale University), Marzia Rosati (Iowa State University (mrosati@iastate.edu)), Peter Steinberg (BNL)

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The Annual RHIC & AGS Users' Meeting will be held on May 20 -23, 2025. The meeting will highlight the latest results from the PHENIX, STAR and sPHENIX experiments and provide an outlook with the future programs at RHIC and the EIC.

Workshops that will be held on Tuesday, May 20, and Wednesday, May 21, will enable more in-depth discussions of the following topics:

• Jets
• Heavy Flavor
• Flow
• BES
• ePIC/EIC
• AI/ML
• Mentoring

There will be an in-person poster session on Thursday, May 22, Plenary sessions will be held on Thursday, May 22, and Friday, May 23, Reports on operation status from the sPHENIX and STAR experiments and highlights from PHENIX, sPHENIX and STAR experiments, EIC detectors, report from the Department of Energy, and award ceremonies will be held during the plenary sessions.

Finally, a special symposium commemorating "RHIC 25" will be held just following the plenary sessions on Thursday, May 22.

Event ID: E000006817

Note: This meeting falls under Exemption E. Meetings such as Advisory Committee and Federal Advisory Committee meetings. Solicitation/Funding Opportunity Announcement Review Board meetings, peer review/objective review panel meetings, evaluation panel/board meetings, and program kick-off and review meetings (including those for grants and contracts) are open to the public.

Tuesday, May 20

9:00 AM → 10:30 AM Workshop 1: BES: Morning 1

Conveners: Dr Dekra Almaalol (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Emilie Duckworth (Kent State University)

9:00 AM Experimental overview of the BES II

Speaker: Lijuan Ruan (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:30 AM Analysis of BES Fluctuations and cumulants (experimental)

Speaker: Zachary Sweger (University of California, Davis)

10:00 AM UPC

Speaker: Ashik Ikbal

9:00 AM → 10:30 AM Workshop 2: HF: Morning 1

Zoom: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1603582384?pwd=QoI2nh0caGl8kCSdWcZwZ0uXEZ0LSC.1

Conveners: Gregory Ottino (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:00 AM STAR Heavy Flavor Physics Overview

Speaker: Kaifeng Shen

9:30 AM sPHENIX Heavy Flavor Overview

Speaker: Alexander Patton (MIT)

10:00 AM PHENIX Heavy Flavor Overview

Speaker: Dr Ming Liu (Los Alamos)

9:00 AM → 10:30 AM Workshop 3: ePIC/EIC: Morning 1

Conveners: Cheuk-Ping Wong (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

9:15 AM EIC Commissionoing

Speaker: Dr Andrii Natochii (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:40 AM Detector Removal and Repurpose

Speakers: David Chan (BNL), Marianna Albanese

10:10 AM Collider and Machine Status Update and Plan

Speaker: Christoph Montag (BNL)

11:00 AM → 12:30 PM Workshop 1: BES: Morning 2

Conveners: Dr Dekra Almaalol (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Emilie Duckworth (Kent State University)

11:00 AM Theoretical overview of the BES

Speaker: Lipei Du (McGill University)

11:30 AM QCD equation of state at finite density and the critical point

Speaker: Johannes Jahan

12:00 PM Cumulants and fluctuations measurement at the BES II

Speaker: volodymer vovchenko

11:00 AM → 12:00 PM Workshop 2: HF: Morning 2

Zoom: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1603582384?pwd=QoI2nh0caGl8kCSdWcZwZ0uXEZ0LSC.1

Conveners: Gregory Ottino (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

11:00 AM LHC Open Heavy Flavor

Speaker: Deepa Thomas (The University of Texas at Austin)

11:30 AM LHC Quarkonia

Speaker: Maria Elena Ascioti

11:00 AM → 12:15 PM Workshop 3: ePIC/EIC: Morning 2

Conveners: Cheuk-Ping Wong (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

11:00 AM EIC Physics in PHENIX

Speaker: Devon Loomis (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)

11:25 AM EIC Physics in STAR

Speaker: Jae Nam (Temple University)

11:50 AM Prospects of RHIC data and Run 25

Speaker: Jani Penttala (UCLA)

12:30 PM → 2:00 PM No Host Lunch Break

1:30 PM → 3:00 PM Workshop 3: ePIC/EIC: Afternoon 1

Conveners: Cheuk-Ping Wong (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

1:30 PM Report on EIC Early Physics Workshop (Phenomenology)

Speaker: Shohini Bhattacharya (University of Connecticut)

1:55 PM EIC Physic in sPHENIX

Speaker: Virgile Mahaut (CEA)

2:20 PM ePIC Far forward Status Update

Speaker: Alexander Jentsch (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

2:40 PM ePIC PID Status Update

Speaker: Prakhar Garg (Yale University)

2:00 PM → 3:30 PM Workshop 1: BES: Afternoon 1

Conveners: Dekrayat Almaalol (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Emilie Duckworth (Kent State University)

2:00 PM Flow Overview (experimental)

Speaker: MD Nassim

2:30 PM Flow and Isobars Overview (theory)

Speaker: Niseem Magdy

2:00 PM → 4:00 PM Workshop 2: HF: Afternoon 1

Zoom: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1603582384?pwd=QoI2nh0caGl8kCSdWcZwZ0uXEZ0LSC.1

Conveners: Gregory Ottino (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

2:00 PM Theory of Quarkonia

Speaker: Xiaojun Yao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

2:30 PM Theory of Open Heavy Flavor

Speaker: Yu Fu

3:00 PM ePIC overview

Speaker: Dongwi Dongwi (Stony Brook University)

3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Workshop 1: BES: Afternoon 2

Conveners: Dekrayat Almaalol (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Emilie Duckworth (Kent State University)

3:30 PM The QCD equation of state from CMF

Speaker: Veronica Dexheimer (Kent State University)

4:00 PM Connections between the HIC and neutron stars

Speaker: Nanxi Yao

4:30 PM eToF calibration

Speaker: Mathias Labonte

3:30 PM → 5:15 PM Workshop 3: ePIC/EIC: Afternoon 2

Conveners: Cheuk-Ping Wong (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

3:30 PM ePIC DAQ Status Update

Speaker: Jeff Landgraf (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

3:50 PM ePIC Tracking Status Update

Speaker: Shujie Li (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

4:10 PM ePIC Calorimetry Status Update

Speaker: Tristan Protzman (Lehigh University)

4:30 PM ePIC computing Status Update

Speaker: Dmitrii Kalinkin (University of Kentucky)

4:50 PM Report on EIC Early Physics Workshop (ePIC)

Speaker: Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

Wednesday, May 21

9:00 AM → 10:30 AM Workshop 4: Jets: Morning 1

Conveners: Dennis Perepelitsa (University of Colorado Boulder), Sevil Salur (Rutgers University)

9:00 AM High-pT physics in sPHENIX

Speaker: Daniel Lis

9:25 AM Jet theory highlights

Speaker: Dr Carlota Andres (LIP, Lisbon)

9:50 AM Jets in STAR

Speaker: Andrew Tamis (Yale University)

9:00 AM → 10:20 AM Workshop 6: AI/ML: Morning 1

Convener: Yeonju Go (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:00 AM Overview of AI/ML in Nuclear Physics

Speaker: Jakub Kvapil (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

9:30 AM The Ecology of Uncertainty: Capturing Epistemic Doubt in Hadron Structure Analyses

Inverse problems are ubiquitous in hadron structure and tomography, where accurately characterizing uncertainties is crucial for unraveling new physics hiding within these uncertainties. In this new precision era of QCD, it is vital to create a translation between our physics and next generation AI/ML algorithms, using tools such as evidential deep learning and information-theoretic metrics to capture and separate contributions from aleatoric, epistemic, and distributional uncertainties. My research focuses on deploying evidence-based machine learning methods to decode parton distribution functions (PDFs) while exploring the vast parameter space of phenomenological and beyond-the-Standard-Model scenarios. Incorporating physics observables such as lattice QCD constraints and experimental measurements within these AI/ML paradigms refines the fidelity of PDF extractions and deepens our understanding of nonperturbative QCD. Ultimately, this integrated approach pushes the frontier of hadron structure discovery, aligning cutting-edge AI/ML progress with emerging opportunities at existing and future experimental physics facilities such as the EIC.

Speaker: Brandon Kriesten (University of Virginia)

9:55 AM TBA

Speaker: Prof. Rithya Kunnawalkam Elayavalli (Vanderbilt University)

10:45 AM → 12:25 PM Workshop 6: AI/ML: Morning 2

Convener: Yeonju Go (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

10:45 AM TBA

Speaker: Hannah Bossi

11:10 AM TBA

Speaker: Yi Huang (Brookhaven national lab)

11:35 AM TBA

Speaker: Shuhang Li (Columbia University)

12:00 PM TBA

Speaker: Yihui Ren

11:00 AM → 12:30 PM Workshop 4: Jets: Morning 2

Conveners: Dennis Perepelitsa (University of Colorado Boulder), Sevil Salur (Rutgers University)

11:00 AM Jets at the LHC

Speaker: Riccardo Longo (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

11:25 AM EECs in Jets

Speaker: Beatrice Liang-Gilman (member@berkeley.edu;student@berkeley.edu;faculty@berkeley.edu;employee@berkeley.edu)

11:50 AM Jets in ePIC

Speaker: Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

1:30 PM → 3:10 PM Workshop 5: Flow: Afternoon 1

Conveners: Ejiro Umaka (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Zhengxi Yan

1:30 PM Small systems - hydrodynamics

Speaker: Dr Bjoern Schenke (BNL)

1:55 PM Small systems - STAR

Speaker: Souvik Paul (staff@stonybrook.edu;student@stonybrook.edu)

2:20 PM Small systems - LHC

Speaker: Blair Seidlitz (Columbia University)

2:45 PM QCD collectivity inside high-multiplicity jets in p+p

Speaker: Austin Baty (University of Illinois Chicago)

1:30 PM → 3:00 PM Workshop 7: Mentoring: Afternoon 1

Conveners: Prof. Rithya Kunnawalkam Elayavalli (Vanderbilt University), Rosi Reed (Lehigh University)

3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Workshop 5: Flow: Afternoon 2

Conveners: Ejiro Umaka (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Zhengxi Yan

3:30 PM Heavy-flavor anisotropic flow - CMS

Speaker: Nihar Saha

3:55 PM Anisotropic flow measurements - highlights from STAR BES program

Speaker: Sharang Sharma (IISER Tirupati)

4:20 PM Anisotropic flow measurements - PHENIX highlights and sPHENIX prospects

Speaker: Ron Belmont (University of North Carolina Greensboro)

3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Workshop 7: Mentoring: Afternoon 2

Conveners: Prof. Rithya Kunnawalkam Elayavalli (Vanderbilt University), Rosi Reed (Lehigh University)

6:00 PM → 8:00 PM AUM dinner @ Painters

Thursday, May 22

9:00 AM → 4:45 PM Plenary Session I - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium

Conveners: Prof. Anders (UEC Chair) Knospe (Lehigh University), Marzia Rosati (UEC Past-Chair) (Iowa State University), Peter Steinberg (UEC Chair-Elect) (BNL)

9:00 AM → 10:25 AM Plenary Session I - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part A

9:00 AM Welcome Remarks

Speaker: JoAnne Hewett (Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:10 AM Opening Remarks

Speaker: Prof. Abhay Deshpande (Stony Brook University & BNL)

9:35 AM Report from the DOE

Speaker: Dr. Sharon Stephenson (Physics Research Division Director, Office of Nuclear Physics, Department of Energy)

10:05 AM C-AD Report

Speaker: Travis Shrey (BNL)

10:25 AM → 10:50 AM Coffee Break & Poster Session

10:50 AM → 12:00 PM Plenary Session I - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part B

10:50 AM STAR Run 24 Report

Speaker: Dr Yu Hu (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

11:20 AM sPHENIX Run 24 Report

Speaker: Rosi Reed (Lehigh University)

11:50 AM Group Picture

12:00 PM → 1:00 PM No Host Lunch Break & Poster Session

1:00 PM → 2:00 PM Plenary Session I - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part C

1:00 PM Workshop Report: Jets

Speakers: Dennis Perepelitsa (University of Colorado Boulder), Sevil Salur (Rutgers University)

1:20 PM Workshop Report: Heavy Flavor

Speakers: Gregory Ottino (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Rongrong Ma (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

1:40 PM Workshop report: Flow

Speakers: Ejiro Umaka (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Zhengxi Yan (student@stonybrook.edu;staff@stonybrook.edu)

2:00 PM → 2:30 PM Coffee Break & Poster Session

2:30 PM → 4:15 PM Plenary Session I - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part D

2:30 PM sPHENIX Highlights

Speakers: JaeBeom Park, Jaebeom Park

3:00 PM PHENIX Highlights

Speaker: Takao Sakaguchi (BNL)

3:30 PM STAR Highlights

Speaker: Chenliang Jin (Rice University)

4:00 PM Presentation of Merit & Thesis Awards

Speaker: Prof. Abhay Deshpande (Stony Brook University & BNL)

4:05 PM Thesis Award Winner

4:10 PM Thesis Award Winner

4:15 PM → 4:45 PM Poster Session & Reception

4:45 PM → 6:45 PM RHIC 25 Symposium: Session 1

Symposium celebrating the 25th anniversary of RHIC collisions.

4:45 PM The birth of RHIC and its first discoveries

Speaker: Prof. William Zajc (Columbia University)

5:15 PM From RHIC to the LHC and back again

Speaker: Dennis Perepelitsa (University of Colorado Boulder)

5:45 PM RHIC physics at high baryon density

Speaker: Lijuan Ruan (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

6:15 PM The lasting impact of RHIC science

Speaker: Prof. Jacquelyn Noronha-Hostler (University of Illinois Urbana Champaign)

Friday, May 23

9:00 AM → 1:00 PM Plenary Session II - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium

Conveners: Prof. Anders Knospe (Lehigh University), Marzia Rosati (Iowa State University), Peter Steinberg (BNL)

9:00 AM → 10:30 AM Plenary Session II - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part A

9:00 AM Workshop Report: BES

Speakers: Dr Dekra Almaalol (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Emilie Duckworth (Kent State University)

9:20 AM Workshop Report: AI/ML

Speaker: Yeonju Go (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

9:40 AM Workshop Report: ePIC/EIC

Speakers: Cheuk-Ping Wong (Brookhaven National Laboratory), Derek Anderson (Iowa State University)

10:00 AM EIC Project Status

Speaker: Jim Yeck

10:30 AM → 11:00 AM Coffee Break

11:00 AM → 12:10 PM Plenary Session II - Bldg. 488 Berkner Hall Auditorium: Part B

11:00 AM ePIC: Status & Plans

11:30 AM Poster Awards

Speaker: Prof. Anders Knospe (Lehigh University)

11:35 AM Poster Flash Talk

11:50 AM Business Meeting

Speaker: Prof. Anders Knospe (Lehigh University)

12:10 PM → 1:00 PM End of Meeting Luncheon Compliments of BSA