4 Feb 2013
RHIC is set to begin the 13th year of operation on 11 January 2013 with the cool down of the RHIC magnets to 4.5 degrees Kelvin (451 degrees below zero Fahrenheit). This year we will begin with 255 GeV x 255 GeV polarized proton collisions to continue exploration of the quark-gluon origin of proton spin. This may be followed with a very low energy (7.5 GeV/n x 7.5 GeV/n) gold on gold run with the aim to further study the "perfect liquid" formed in these collisions. Both the STAR and PHENIX experiments will be operational for this run.
NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) experiments completed a 5 week run on 19 November. These experiments make use of beams from the Booster Accelerator to study radiation effects for the NASA space program. Beams injected into the Booster come primarily from either the new Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) or the Tandem accelerators. Experiments sponsored by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) aimed at studying ways to improve electronics survival in space are currently running using beams from NSRL and should finish their work in a few days. NASA sponsored NSRL experiments are scheduled to begin again about mid-March and continue into early summer.
The Brookhaven Linac Isotope Producer (BLIP) began FY2013 operations on 17 December. The BLIP facility mission is to supply radioisotopes that are not commercially available to the medical community and industry as well as development of new medical isotopes. The BLIP facility uses proton beams from one of the injector machines for RHIC, the 200 MeV LINAC.
Scheduling Physicist web page - FY2013
Status Updates (RHIC Broadcast)
Phil Pile (pile@bnl.gov)