The future of high-energy nuclear physics in the US

The future of nuclear physics in the U. S. and internationally is aimed at understanding Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at a fundamental level. Exploration of the phase diagram of QCD involves the study of nuclear matter under extreme conditions, conditions which can be created in high energy collisions of heavy nuclei. Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is currently the world's premier facility for this line of research. In the future the study of QCD will be carried out at RHIC, which will evolve to address the emerging questions in this field, along with other international facilities.