Brookhaven National Laboratory
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Brookhaven National Laboratory
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As of late last Saturday evening, preparations are complete and polarized protons are colliding at RHIC with the machine and detectors operating in "physics mode." That means gigabytes of data are pouring into the RHIC & ATLAS Computing Facility (RACF) every few seconds.
Tackling the most challenging problems in accelerator science attracts the world's best and brightest to Brookhaven Lab. It's only natural that ideas and techniques born here take root in new research facilities around the world — and spark a host of spin-off applications for industry, medicine, national security, and more.
RHIC Physics
RHIC is the first machine in the world capable of colliding ions as
heavy as gold.
The Spin Puzzle
RHIC is the world's only machine capable of colliding beams of polarized
protons to investigate the 'missing' spin of the proton.
Electron-Ion Collider
A breakthrough accelerator could collide electrons with heavy ions or
protons at nearly the speed of light to create snapshots of the force
binding all visible matter.
Accelerator Science
Before high-speed packets of heavy ions can be brought into collisions
with one another, they first travel through a chain of smaller particle
accelerators.
An Educational Pipeline
Large-scale physics facilities like RHIC play a significant role in
training the next generation of physicists.
Brookhaven physicist Paul Sorensen describes discoveries made at the
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider where conditions similar to what the
universe may have looked like in the first microseconds after its birth are
created.
See large.
RHIC is in its prime, poised to address a host of compelling science questions that remain or have been raised by the important discoveries to date, the facility performance continues to improve dramatically and the user base remains energized. Read more...
PHENIX Detector
STAR Detector
PHOBOS Detector
BRAHMS Detector
Heavy Ion Collisions
Spin Physics
Discoveries
Why Quark Matter Matters
Black Holes
The Future of RHIC
STAR
PHENIX
PHOBOS & BRAHMS
Funding Agencies
Accelerator Complex
Electron-Ion Collider
News & Features
News Archive
Inside RHIC Publication
Video Archive
Image archive
Educational Pipeline
Links for Collaborators
Operated by Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics.
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