NEWS RHIC begins smashing nuclei Gold at STAR - side view of a collision of two 30 GeV/nucleon gold End view in the STAR detector of the same collision looking along beams in the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the direction of the colliding beams. Approximately 1000 tracks Brookhaven. were recorded in this event On Monday 12 June a new high-energy laboratory director for RHIC. It was a proud rings filled, the ions will be whipped to machine made its stage debut as operators in moment for Ozaki, who returned to 70 GeV/nucleon. With stable beams coasting the main control room of Brookhaven's Brookhaven from Japan to oversee the con­ around the rings, the nuclei collide head-on, Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) finally struction and commissioning of this eventually at the rate of tens of thousands of declared victory over their stubborn beams. challenging machine. collisions per second. Several weeks before, Derek Lowenstein, The high temperatures and densities Principal RHIC components were manufac­ chairman of the laboratory's collider-acceler­ achieved in the RHIC collisions should, for a tured by industry, in some cases through ator department, had described repeated fleeting moment, allow the quarks and gluons co-operative ventures that transferred tech­ attempts to get stable beams of gold ions to roam in a soup-like plasma - a state of nology developed at Brookhaven to private circulating in RHIC's two 3.8 km rings as "like matter that is believed to have last existed industry. learning to drive at the Indy 500!". millionths of a second after the Big Bang. The RHIC tunnel is filled with 1740 super­ With beams finally circulating in the col­ Information from RHIC experiments will round conducting magnets in two rings, which bend lider's twin rings on a collision course at an out the quark-gluon plasma knowledge gained and focus the particles. Dipole and quadru- energy of 30 GeV per nucléon, the waiting through experiments using nuclear beams at pole magnets were built by the Northrop- STAR detector captured the first spectacular lower energies at CERN's SPS synchrotron. Grumman Corporation on Long Island, and images of particles streaming from a head-on RHIC construction began in 1991, and the sextupole magnets were built by Everson collision point, showing an impressive shower project was completed last year, when all Electric, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. of about 1000 tracks, but this was just a parts of the machine were initially tested and Brookhaven built the corrector magnets and foretaste of bigger things to come. Soon, operated as a complete system, but just short other special magnets. collisions were also seen by the BRAHMS, of physics operation. Construction and com­ The RHIC tunnel configuration provides for PHENIX and PHOBOS detectors. missioning costs totalled $600 million. six areas where the circulating beams cross The result is great news for the thousands of Nuclei destined for RHIC originate in the and where collisions take place. Four areas physicists, engineers and support staff who laboratory's Tandem Van de Graaff, proceed now contain detectors - two large ones, STAR have been working since 1991 to get RHIC up into the booster and then travel on to the and PHENIX, and two smaller assemblies, and running, and for physicists everywhere venerable Alternating Gradient Synchrotron PHOBOS and BRAHMS. All together, close to who have been anticipating RHIC's debut. (AGS), which first came into operation in 1000 scientists from 90 research institutions "These are the most spectacular subatomic 1960.The AGS injects nuclear beams into representing 19 countries are working on RHIC collisions ever witnessed by humankind, RHIC for experiments. experiments. representing the culmination of many years of For RHIC, bunches of nuclei are injected For more information and to follow RHIC's hard work," said Satoshi Ozaki, associate into each of the two rings.Then, with both progress, visit "http://www.rhic.bnl.gov/". CERN Courier July/August 2000 5 NEWS Unity in diversity - DESY turns 40 Bjorn Wiik Research Project The World Laboratory Bjorn Wiik Research Project/created in honour of the late Bjorn Wiik, awards scholarships to young scientists from developing countries to enable them to pursue research and training at DESY in particle or accelerator physics, application of synchrotron radiation and high-performance computing. Birthday party - the central area of DESY's Mikhail Yurkov of Russia, who was one of VIP preview of the DESY exhibition. Left to EXPO exhibition, Light for the New the first winners of a Wiik scholarship, in right: Polish Science Minister Andrzéj Millennium, which was the venue for the recognition of his pioneering work on the Wischniewsky DESY director-general celebrations marking the 40th anniversary FEL, was one of the keynote young speakers Albrecht Wagner, Minister Edelgard Bulmahn of the Hamburg laboratory on 23 May this at the DESY anniversary event. and DESY director for synchrotron radiation year. (DESY.) research Jochen Schneider. (DESY.) On 18 December 1959 the state contract was Gerhard Schroeder were conveyed by Edelgard believes, the project of the future. "I admire signed and DESY was born. However, like Bulmahn, Federal Minister for Education and the foresight and courage of Bjorn Wiik in some monarchs, the German DESY laboratory Research. She commended the "diversity" - putting this project together," she said. in Hamburg chose a different date for its the symbiosis of different research areas at Five young physicists, representative of the official birthday. On 23 May, 2400 people took DESY - a theme echoed by Hamburg deputy diversity of nationalities under DESY's roof, their seats in a balloon-filled marquee to mayor Krista Sager, who stressed the benefit presented an overview of research at DESY, celebrate DESY's 40th birthday, with the of doing applied as well as basic research. focusing on the unique HERA electron-proton theme "Unity in diversity". Sager also acknowledged the impact of DESY collider and the Free Electron Laser (FEL).Then DESY director-general Albrecht Wagner on Hamburg: every local resident has heard of party guests were granted "ein Sneakpreview" proudly welcomed many special guests. DESY and is proud of the laboratory. of the DESY exhibition, Light for the New Particular welcomes were extended to 88- Strong emphasis was given toTESLA, a plan Millennium, before the public opening. year-old Willibald Jentschke, a founding father fora future TeV linear electron-positron col­ The exhibition hall will eventually become and first director-general of the laboratory lider running 33 km from DESY into Schleswig- an experimental area for the FEL project from 1959 to 1970, and to Mrs Becker-Wiik, Holstein. Ute Erdsiek-Rave, Schleswig- (p26). However, Albrecht Wagner is keen to widow of Bjorn Wiik, who was DESY director- Holstein Minister for Education, Science, find a permanent home for the exhibition, general from 1993 until his tragic death last Research and Culture, joked that "Hamburg perhaps as a cornerstone of a new science year. Wagner paid tribute to Wiik as a "great for once needs Schleswig-Holstein ! " museum in Hamburg. With the laboratory visionary" and revealed that donations to a Minister Bulmahn explained thatTESLA poised at another crossroads in its illustrious research foundation created in his memory would be undergoing detailed scrutiny in career, he looked forward to "another exciting exceeded DEM 75 000 (see box). Germany this year, in comparison with parallel chapter in the DESY history book". Congratulations from German Chancellor projects in the US and Japan. It is, she Alison Wright, CERN. I James Stirling is Institute will set out to make additonal contri­ UK phenomenology director-designate butions to both the experimental and the of the new UK wider UK theoretical programmes. Research centre is created Institute for Particle will encompass accelerator and non-accelera­ Physics tor measurements, and the emphasis of the After several months of negotiations, the UK i j4 |L Phenomenology at research should evolve with the UK experi­ Particle Physics and Astronomy Research • ^^^h^tÊ^^ 1 Durham. mental particle physics programme. Council has announced the establishment of a key area. Phenomenology (the analysis, Experimentalists will participate in the activi­ an Institute for Particle Physics comparison and interpretation of data) is the ties of the new institute, which will host an Phenomenology at Durham University.The bridge between theory and experiment. extensive visitor programme and hold work­ director-designate is James Stirling. Durham already has a considerable inter­ shops and summer schools for the benefit of The aim is to establish a broad-based, national reputation in this field (see "http:// the whole UK particle physics community.The internationally competitive research activity in durpdg.dur.ac.uk/HEPDATA").The new institute is expected to start up in October. 6 CERN Courier July/August 2000 NEWS Meeting the ALICE data challenge Imagine trying to record a symphony in each.The first, HPSS, is the fruit of a a second.That is effectively what CERN's collaboration between industry and ALICE collaboration will have to do when several US laboratories.The second, the laboratory's forthcoming Large CASTOR, has been developed at CERN. Hadron Collider (LHC) starts up in Although each component of the 2005. Furthermore, that rate will have to system had been tested individually be sustained for a full month each year. and shown to work with high data rates, ALICE is the LHC's dedicated heavy- this year's tests have demonstrated the ion experiment. Although heavy-ion old adage that the whole is frequently running will occupy just one month per greater than the sum of its parts: prob­ year, the huge number of particles pro­ lems only arose when all of the duced in ion collisions means that ALICE component systems were integrated.