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RHICRHIC Located at

Brookhaven National Laboratory

Major Columbia involvement in the PHENIX experiment: Profs. B. Cole, J. Nagle, W. Zajc

(spokesperson) Research Associate C.Y. Chi Postdocs S. Batsouli, S. Kelly Students M. Chiu, J. Frantz, C. Zhang

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PHENIX at RHICPHENIX at RHIC

3 global detectors

2 central spectrometers

West

East 2 forward

spectrometersSouth

North

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Central Magnet

East Carriage

West Carriage

Ring Imaging CerenkovDrift Chamber

Beam-Beam Counter

PHENIX Central PHENIX Central

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What is PHENIX?What is PHENIX? Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment Goals:

Broadest possible study of nuclear collisions to Study nuclear matter under extreme conditions Measure spin structure of the nucleon

Perform “experimental gauge theory”:

Only in QCD can we study Running of coupling from weak to strong limit Both particle interactions and condensed matter in the strong

limit

Coupling Constant Number LimitWeak Strong Particle Bulk

Gravity

Weak

QED

QCD