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PHENIX OVERVIEW W.A. Zajc Columbia University July 23, 1999

PHENIX is an international collaboration of 400 scientists and engineers conducting experiments to understand proton spin, dense matter, and search for new states of matter. It is equipped with sophisticated detector sub-systems and located at RHIC.

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PHENIX OVERVIEW W.A. Zajc Columbia University July 23, 1999

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  1. PHENIX OVERVIEW W.A. Zajc Columbia University July 23, 1999

  2. What is PHENIX? • Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Ion eXperiment • An international collaboration of more than 400 scientists and engineers • ~4000 tons of extremely sophisticated detector sub-systems • A scientific adventure to • Understand the mystery of proton spin • Understand the densest, hottest matter ever formed on Earth • Search for and characterize new states of matter

  3. Brazil Sao Paolo Canada McGill China CIAE Germany Münster India BARC, Banaras Hindu University Israel Weizmann Institute Japan CNS, Hiroshima, KEK, Kyoto, Nagasaki, RIKEN, TITech., Tokyo, Tsukuba, Waseda Korea Korea, Myongji, Yonsei Russia IHEP Protvino, JINR Dubna, Kurchatov, PNPI St.. Petersburg, St. Petersburg STU Sweden Lund United States Alabama-Huntsville, BNL, California-Riverside, Columbia, Florida State, Georgia State, Iowa State, LANL, LLNL,New Mexico, New Mexico State, ORNL, SUNY-Stony Brook, Tennessee, Vanderbilt Where is PHENIX?

  4. Why is RHIC? To understand fundamental aspects of the strong interaction: Where does the proton get its spin? • How does nuclear matter “melt”? • We have a theory of the strong interaction: It works well except when the interaction is strong!

  5. Phase Diagrams Water Nuclear Matter

  6. Why is PHENIX? To probe the spin structure of “ordinary” matter (protons) To detect and measure “extraordinary” matter Quark-Gluon Plasma using as wide a variety of probes as possible Sensitivity to many signatures Sensitivity to essentially all time-scales Insensitive to theoretical “fashion”

  7. Where is PHENIX? At “IP8” at RHIC (Everywhere that fits): West • 2 “central” spectrometers • 2 “forward” spectrometers South East • 2 “global” detectors North

  8. What does PHENIX measure? • Hadrons Final-state “debris” as quark-gluon plasma returns to ordinary matter. • Photons • “Real” g • “Massive” g* (decays to e+e- or m+m- pairs) • The blackbody radiation from the collision • Vector mesons, especially J/y’s • Standard candles in the collision debris • Look for their disappearance (~ melting)

  9. When is PHENIX? At “IP8” at RHIC (Everywhere that fits): • 2 “central” spectrometers Fall-99 • 2 “forward” spectrometers Year-2 Year-1 • 2 “global” detectors Year-3

  10. “Where” is PHENIX? 2 years ago: 1 year ago: 6 months ago: This week:

  11. Physics from Year-1 • Can record essentially all events RHIC can make (in Year-1) • 120M unbiased Au-Au events • Physics reach: An extensive program addressing all collision timescales: • How big is it? • How bright is it? • How long does it live? • How strange is it? • How did it get that way?

  12. Physics from PHENIX NA44: • How big is it? • How long does it live? E859: • How strange is it? PHENIX WA80: • How bright it it? NA50: • How did it get that way?

  13. Summary • Year-1 (FY00): • Thorough initial study of highest-mass, highest-energy collisions ever made • Minimum bias  maximal ability to understand data set and effect of (later) triggering • Measurement of p-p collisions to characterize baseline physics • Year-2: • First results on spin physics • Greater sensitivity to rare (and exciting probes) • Year 3-10: A continuing program of spin and heavy ion discovery

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