Studies of dense nuclear matter at NICA

Laboratory experiments with high-energetic heavy-ion collisions offer the opportunity to explore fundamental properties of nuclear matter, such as the high-density equation-of-state, which governs the structure and dynamics of cosmic objects and phenomena like neutron stars, supernova explosions, and neutron star mergers. A particular goal and challenge of the experiments is to unravel the microscopic degrees-of-freedom of strongly interaction matter at high density, including the search for phase transitions, which may feature a region of phase coexistence and a critical endpoint. As the theory of strong interaction is not able to make firm predictions for the structure and the properties of matter high baryon chemical potentials, the scientific progress in this field is driven by experimental results. The mission of future experiments at FAIR and NICA, which will complement the running experimental programs at GSI, CERN, and RHIC, is to explore new diagnostic probes, which never have been measured before at collision energies, where the highest net-baryon densities will be created. The most promising observables, which are expected to shed light on the nature of high-density QCD matter, comprise the collective flow of identified particles including multi-strange (anti-) hyperons, fluctuations and correlations, lepton pairs, and charmed particles. In the following, the perspectives for experiments in the NICA energy range will be discussed.