Heavy Ions and New Physics

In the recent past, several proposals have been made to exploit heavy ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to search for new phenomena in particle physics, including axion-like particles, long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model and magnetic monopoles. The objective of this workshop is to bring together members of the involved communities to exploit the potential of these ideas, either during scheduled LHC runs or in dedicated efforts at the LHC or future colliders. We want to create a unique opportunity for exchange between scientists working in different fields of experimental physics, theoretical physics, accelerator physics and detector physics that otherwise have little connection.

Most of the proposals to search for New Physics in heavy ion collisions are very recent and form an entirely novel direction of research. We organised the first dedicated meeting about this topic in 2018 in Louvain La Neuve. The workshop was a great success, resulting in a contribution to the European Particle Physics Strategy, and has been covered in a Field Note by the CERN Courier (page 22). However, there are still many open questions about the discovery potential and practical limitations that one will face. We want to provide a unique opportunity for members of different communities (theorists, experimentalists and accelerator physicists) who otherwise have no or little exchange with each other to discuss the possibility to search for New Physics in heavy ion collisions.