Nuclear Physics

Relativistic Heavy-Ion Physics (RHIP) includes experimental research using the STAR (Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC) detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York. RHIC provides colliding beams of Au nuclei, each with the kinetic energy of 100 GeV/nucleon so that the total center-of-momentum kinetic energy is 40 TeV, representing a new generation of exciting and fundamental experiments underway. Significant components of the STAR physics program include a search for: (1) a color-deconfined state of matter, (2) evidence of chiral symmetry restoration, and (3) the study of matter as it may have existed during the early moments of the Universe.