First beams of nuclei circulate rings at Brookhaven's RHIC

cernnews6_10-99 — Work on the cryogenic system for Brookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Equipped with superconducting magnets, the machine operates at 4.6 K. (R Stoutenburgh.)

During August, work continued to establish circulating beams of nuclei in the two rings of Brookhaven’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Equipped with superconducting magnets, the machine operates at 4.6 K.

The beam was injected and stored in the first (“blue”) ring. Lifetimes of up to 45 min and modest acceleration about 1 GeV per nucleon were achieved. A few apparent obstacles will be investigated when the ring is warmed up.

cernnews7_10-99 — Earlier this year a meeting took place between members of the directorates of Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Joint Institutes for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, near Moscow. The timing of the meeting was chosen to allow visitors from JINR to tour the RHIC complex prior to the start of RHIC operations. The purpose was to discuss areas of mutual interest for scientific collaboration. Brookhaven director John Marburger (right) and JINR director Vladimir Kadyshevsky signed a protocol of understanding, regarding activities that will be accomplished in 1999 in areas of mutual interest. A key element of the agreement is to establish a PC farm at JINR to support JINR’s ability to participate fully in the analysis of data and the production of scientific results from RHIC, Fermilab and CERN. The establishment of the farm has already been achieved since the meeting.

Thousands of turns of beams have been seen briefly in the second (“yellow”) ring, with successful radiofrequency capture. Long lifetimes have not yet been established, nor has acceleration been performed. While no apparent obstacles have been found in this ring, steering and second turn closure in the injection region were found to be more difficult than in the first ring, as was steering through the dump area.

Beams are next expected in RHIC in December.