RHIC: What We Have Learned So Far (434th Brookhaven Lecture)
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Physics Dept.
One of the world's premiere nuclear research facilities, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven Lab is just completing its eighth year of physics operation. During the past eight years, RHIC's primary physics program has emphasized the creation, observation and explanation of nuclear matter created at temperatures and densities that last existed in the universe some 13.7 billion years ago. RHIC was built to study the strong force, which holds quarks and gluons together within the nucleus of an atom, with the goal of observing a plasma of quarks and gluons freed from the atomic nucleus. The new state of matter that was created, however, was quite different. Dr. O'Brien will discuss what RHIC scientists expected versus what they discovered, and how this finding both challenges existing theory and provides an opportunity to understand the strong force better.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1005219
- Report Number(s):
- BNL--83209-2008-CP
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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