A number of accelerator and detector upgrades will help RHIC physicists crank out the data as they strive for deeper understanding of the perfect liquid quark gluon plasma (QGP) and the source of proton spin.
Yasuyuki Akiba, experimental group leader of the RIKEN BNL Research Center at BNL and vice chief scientist at the RIKEN Nishina Center in Japan, has been named the recipient of the 2011 Nishina Memorial Prize, given annually by the Nishina Memorial Foundation since 1955 to young physicists for their achievements in the fields of atomic and subatomic physics.
Analyses of RHIC data have established that collisions of gold ions have created matter at a temperature of about 4 trillion degrees Celcius, higher than the temperature needed to melt protons and neutrons into a plasma of quarks and gluons. More...
Four detectors -- STAR, PHENIX, PHOBOS, and BRAHMS -- help physicists analyze RHIC particle collisions. These detectors electronically record the results of collisions, seeking insight into what happens when quarks are liberated from their atomic nuclei.
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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