Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, pronounced like "Rick") is a heavy-ion collider located at and operated by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York. By using RHIC to collide ions traveling at relativistic speeds, physicists study the primordial form of matter that existed in the universe shortly after the Big Bang, and also the structure of protons.
At present, RHIC is the most powerful heavy-ion collider in the world, although the LHC is expected to collide ions at higher energies in late 2009. It is also distinctive in its capability to collide spin-polarized protons.
RHIC is an intersecting storage ring (ISR) particle accelerator. Two independent rings (arbitrarily denoted as "blue" and "yellow" rings, see also the photograph) allow a virtually free choice of colliding projectiles. The RHIC double storage ring is itself hexagonally shaped and 3834 m long in circumference, with curved edges in which stored particles are deflected by 1,740 superconducting niobium-titanium magnets. The six interaction points are at the middle of the six relatively straight sections, where the two rings cross, allowing the particles to collide. The interaction points are enumerated by clock positions, with the injection point at 6 o'clock. Two interaction points are unused and left for further expansion (refer also to the RHIC Complex diagram).
One unique characteristic of RHIC is its capability to produce polarized protons. RHIC holds the record of highest energy polarized protons. Polarized protons are injected into RHIC and preserving this state throughout the energy ramp. This is a difficult task that can only be accomplished with the aid of Siberian Snakes (a chain of solenoids and quadrupoles for aligning particles) and AC dipoles. The AC dipoles have been also used in non-linear machine diagnostics for the first time in RHIC.
First gold ion beam-beam collisions at a momentum of 100 + 100 GeV/c per nucleon on STAR showing hadronized charged particle debris curving in the magnetic field of the instrument.
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Wikipedia
The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider Makes Some Noise PhysOrg - November 21, 2008
A group of physicists studying heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a large particle accelerator located on Long Island, New York, recently showed that the collisions can create acoustic shock waves -- sonic booms. This new information could be used to learn even more about the intriguing state of matter produced during the collisions.
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