ALICE 3: a next-generation heavy-ion experiment for the LHC

ALICE 3 is proposed as the next-generation experiment for the heavy-ion program at the LHC Run 5 and 6. The goals of ALICE 3 include measurements of thermal dileptons to probe the time-evolution of the temperature of the Quark Gluon Plasma and to understand the dynamical realization of chiral symmetry restoration. ALICE 3 also aims to understand the interactions of heavy charm and beauty quarks with the plasma probing the plasma properties and to understand how thermal equilibrium is approached and what the impact of hadronization effects is on these probes. To achieve these goals, a next-generation experiment with a lightweight high-resolution tracking system with unique pointing resolution complemented with a time-of-flight detector and ring-imaging Cherenkov detector system to provide electron and hadron identification capabilities over a wide momentum range are being proposed. A muon identification system with low pt reach and an electromagnetic calorimeter are foreseen for measurements of quarkonia and exotic hadrons and a dedicated forward detector for ultra-soft photons, is also proposed. I will review the physics program and the planned detector systems and present performance studies for ALICE 3.