|
Thousands
of charged particles emerge from
a collision of two gold nuclei
inside the STAR detector at RHIC. |
The highest energies ever recorded
in a laboratory were reported in 2000,
when Brookhaven National Laboratory
began operating its newest "atom smasher,"
the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC), which collides nuclei at high
energies. The first collisions of
gold nuclei occurred in June 2000,
at energies of 26 trillion electron
volts per interaction. Data from this
first run imply that conditions will
be favorable for creating and studying
the quark-gluon plasmavery hot,
dense states of nuclear matter that
have not existed since microseconds
after the Big Bang creation of the
universe. The RHIC was made possible
by many advances in accelerator technology,
instrumentation, and magnets supported
by the Office of Science. Images of
the event were recorded in stunning
three-dimensional detail by the STAR
detector, developed in a collaboration
of several national laboratories.
The RHIC uses as a heavy ion injector
the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron,
which over four decades has hosted
research leading to three Nobel Prizes.
New computational methods will enable
scientists to model and estimate the
properties of subatomic particles
and phenomena produced at the RHIC.
Scientific Impact:
Through experiments at the RHIC, scientists
will gain insights into the fundamental
nature of matter and how has it has
evolved since at the dawn of the universe.
Development of these machines led
to advances in different areas of
science, including computer analysis
of huge volumes of data and production
of superconducting magnets.
Social Impact: Research
on fundamental properties of matter
typically yields significant technological
advances. The RHIC is also a training
ground for the next generation of
physicists, who may go on to develop
new types of computers, medical imaging
technologies, cancer treatments, or
other ways of observing and controlling
the physical world.
Reference: RHIC
Design Manual, http://www.rhichome.bnl.gov/NT-share/rhicdm/decades.htm
URL:
http://www.rhic.bnl.gov
Technical Contact:
Dr. Thomas Kirk, tkirk@bnl.gov
Press Contact: Jeff
Sherwood, DOE Office of Public Affairs,
202-586-5806
SC-Funding Office:
Office of High Energy and Nuclear
Physics |