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Contact Us:
C-A Department
Brookhaven National Lab
Bldg. 911, P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631)344-4619

Photo of RHIC Tunnel and Magnets

Machines

Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
An accelerator in which two beams of ions or polarized protons are brought into collision, in as many as six locations, in order to study the state of matter formed in the first microseconds of the Universe and to study the spin structure of the proton.

Alternating Gradient Synchrotron
The AGS is the final stage of the accelerator injector chain which accepts beam from the Booster and then accelerates ions and polarized protons to the minimum RHIC energy. The AGS then injects the beam into the two accelerator rings that comprise RHIC.

Booster Accelerator
The Booster accepts ions from the Tandem Van de Graaffs and protons from the LINAC, which then accelerates the beam to the minimum AGS energy before injecting the beam into the AGS. The Booster supplies beam to the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL).

Tandem Van de Graaff
The Tandem Van de Graaff electrostatic accelerators are the sources of ions for the RHIC accelerator injector chain, starting with the Booster. Also used to supply ions for radiation testing of electronic components and for manufacturing of industrial items.

LINAC
A linear accelerator, fed by two smaller accelerators, supplies beams of protons and polarized protons for the RHIC injector system, the Booster for NSRL, and the production of medical isotopes at the Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer (BLIP) facility.

About the Collider-Accelerator Dept.

The mission of the Collider-Accelerator Department is to develop, improve and operate the suite of particle / heavy ion accelerators used to carry out the program of accelerator-based experiments at BNL; to support the experimental program including design, construction and operation of the beam transports to the experiments plus support of detector and research needs of the experiments; to design and construct new accelerator facilities in support of the BNL and national missions. The C-A Department supports an international user community of over 1500 scientists. The department performs all these functions in an environmentally responsible and safe manner under a rigorous conduct of operations approach.
-- Derek Lowenstein, Department Chair

:: RHIC Experiments

STAR | PHENIX | PHOBOS | BRAHMS | PP2PP

:: Fixed Target Experiments

NASA Space Radiation Laboratory

:: For Users

RHIC/AGS User's Center

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