PubSci Ponders the Secrets of Matter and Journey to the Electron-Ion Collider

Brookhaven Lab physicists share details about transition to a new state-of-the-art collider

June 1, 2026

Nearly 75 community members gathered at Napper Tandy’s in Bay Shore, New York, on April 14 for the latest PubSci event, “The Secrets of Matter: Journey to the Electron-Ion Collider.” The science café-style discussion, organized by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, brought together three Brookhaven physicists and the public for an informal chat about gearing up for the world’s next particle smasher: the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC).

For more than a quarter century, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) operated as a DOE Office of Science user facility for nuclear physics research at Brookhaven, collecting critical data from particle collisions that recreated conditions just after the Big Bang. RHIC completed its 25^th and final run in February, marking a step toward the EIC, a next-generation collider to be built in its place in partnership with DOE’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The EIC will reuse portions of RHIC’s existing infrastructure, and introduce new technologies, to develop a powerful new tool for discovery.

The PubSci discussion surrounded three guiding questions: Why do we need a new collider? What will the EIC see? How will what we learn at the EIC benefit us?

Panelists EIC Co-Associate Director for Experimental Program Elke-Caroline Aschenauer, accelerator physicist Daniel Marx, and physicist Alex Jentsch shared the scientific motivations behind the EIC, highlighted major components of the future machine, and reflected on what it means to help shape the world’s next collider.

“This is a once-in-a-career opportunity to work on a brand-new facility from the beginning and see it to completion,” Jentsch said at PubSci.  

Audience members arrived ready with their own questions, including: What are major differences between RHIC and the EIC? How much of the RHIC complex will be used for the EIC? And how will the EIC “see” particle collisions?

RHIC collided atomic species ranging from single protons to heavy atoms such as gold stripped of their electrons, yielding insights into quarks and gluons — the inner building blocks of the protons and neutrons that make up the bulk of visible matter — as well as a quantum property called spin. Although RHIC’s operations have ended, a wealth of data remains to be analyzed, with discoveries expected for years to come.

Scientists will use the EIC to explore different questions in nuclear physics by colliding electrons with protons and nuclei to produce detailed snapshots of their internal structure — like a CT scan for atoms. These precision images will allow researchers to study the strong nuclear force — the strongest force in nature — which binds quarks together, and to better understand the role of gluons in the matter that makes up our world.

"If you think about yourself, you’re made up of atoms, and atoms are made of protons and neutrons. We want to understand: What do they look like?” Aschenauer said. “We all know we weigh something and the protons weigh something, but the particles that make up the proton cannot explain the mass. We have a real puzzle: Where is the mass of the proton and our mass coming from? It’s really something we would like to learn, and the EIC can tell us this.”

Scientists also hope to better understand how properties such as spin arise.

To study processes that are invisible to the human eye, physicists will use sophisticated detector systems that capture snapshots of debris from EIC collisions, allowing researchers to reconstruct events piece by piece, “like taking a picture of an elephant one pixel at a time,” Jentsch said.

Work to transform the RHIC complex for the EIC is already underway. Marx explained how the 2.4-mile-circumference-tunnel will be equipped with new components to introduce electrons into the complex, including different types of magnets that will control how particles circulate around the collider.

Marx emphasized the scale of collaboration required to bring the project to life.

“It really does take a village,” Marx said. “There are hundreds of people involved in making this a reality.”

Beyond supporting a new frontier of fundamental physics, the EIC will drive advances in accelerator, detector, and computational technologies. It will also welcome a new generation of scientists, engineers, and technicians to carry out its science mission.

“Particle accelerators are used for things like cancer therapy, making semiconductors, for security — they're used for all sorts of really useful things,” Marx noted. "The developments we make in accelerators are the kinds of things that can also help us for those kinds of machines that are a little closer to peoples’ lives.”

About PubSci

Since 2014, PubSci has offered the Long Island community a chance to see a casual side of the cutting-edge research happening every day at Brookhaven Lab and chat with the Lab’s scientists over a drink. The series hops around Long Island covering different topics from the Big Bang to tomorrow’s technologies. Stay tuned for the next PubSci and sign up to be alerted to the next event!

Brookhaven National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit science.energy.gov.

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