Femtoscopy in heavy ion collisions: Wherefore, whence, and whither?

Abstract

I present a brief overview of the wealth of femtoscopic measurements from the past two decades of heavy ion experiments. Essentially every conceivable knob at our disposal has been turned; the response of two-particle correlations to these variations has revealed much about he space-momentum substructure of the hot source created in the collisions. I discuss the present status of the femtoscopic program and questions which remain, and point to new efforts which aim to resolve them.

12 pages, 11 figures; Combined write-up of presentations at XXXV International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, and at the Workshop on Particle Correlations and Femtoscopy, Kromeriz, Czech Republic, August 2005