skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: PHENIX Conceptual Design Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6370496· OSTI ID:6370496

The PHENIX Conceptual Design Report (CDR) describes the detector design of the PHENIX experiment for Day-1 operation at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The CDR presents the physics capabilities, technical details, cost estimate, construction schedule, funding profile, management structure, and possible upgrade paths of the PHENIX experiment. The primary goals of the PHENIX experiment are to detect the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and to measure its properties. Many of the potential signatures for the QGP are measured as a function of a well-defined common variable to see if any or all of these signatures show a simultaneous anomaly due to the formation of the QGP. In addition, basic quantum chromodynamics phenomena, collision dynamics, and thermodynamic features of the initial states of the collision are studied. To achieve these goals, the PHENIX experiment measures lepton pairs (dielectrons and dimuons) to study various properties of vector mesons, such as the mass, the width, and the degree of yield suppression due to the formation of the QGP. The effect of thermal radiation on the continuum is studied in different regions of rapidity and mass. The e[mu] coincidence is measured to study charm production, and aids in understanding the shape of the continuum dilepton spectrum. Photons are measured to study direct emission of single photons and to study [pi][sup 0] and [eta] production. Charged hadrons are identified to study the spectrum shape, production of antinuclei, the [phi] meson (via K[sup +]K[sup [minus]] decay), jets, and two-boson correlations. The measurements are made down to small cross sections to allow the study of high p[sub T] spectra, and J/[psi] and [Upsilon] production. The PHENIX collaboration consists of over 300 scientists, engineers, and graduate students from 43 institutions in 10 countries. This large international collaboration is supported by US resources and significant foreign resources.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH00016
OSTI ID:
6370496
Report Number(s):
BNL-48922; ON: DE93015759
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English