NA49/NA61: results and plans on beam energy and system size scan at the CERN SPS

Understand

This paper presents results and plans of the NA49 and NA61/SHINE experiments at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron concerning the study of relativistic nucleus-nucleus interactions.

• First, the NA49 evidence for the energy threshold of creating quark-gluon plasma, the onset of deconfinement, in central lead-lead collisions around 30A GeV is reviewed.
• Then the status of the NA61/SHINE systematic study of properties of the onset of deconfinement is presented.
• Second, the search for the critical point of strongly interacting matter undertaken by both experiments is discussed.