The U.S. Department of Energy hasdecidedon the final location of a major forthcoming American particle collider : Brookhaven National Lab on Long Island in New York .
The Electron Ion Collider ( EIC ) is a proposed speck accelerator that will thrash electrons into the core of heavy mote , with the goal of better understanding atomic structure and the force that holds atoms together . Two national laboratories , Brookhaven and Jefferson Lab in Newport News , Virginia , had been vying for the $ 1 billion+ experimentation .
Each location offered an exist experiment that would be incorporated into the EIC . Brookhaven ’s 2 - Roman mile - rhythm Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider ( RHIC ) would have provided a source of atomic nuclei , while Jefferson Lab ’s Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility , which already does interchangeable work to what the EIC project proposes , would have offer the electrons .
A component of RHIC at Brookhaven National Lab, which could soon become part of the EICPhoto:Wikimedia Commons user Z22
Both laboratoriesdrafted proposalsdetailing how they ’d sour their respective experiments into an electron - ion collider , andlocal politicianscompeted for an experiment they hoped would promote the local economy . Sciencereportsthat the Department of Energy organize an independent commission to select the location , weighing various factors including the toll of each plan ( it ’s generally more costly to accelerate ions than negatron , for example ) .
Scientific means havelong offeredtheir support for this experiment . The National Academies of Science releasedan assessmentsaying that the EIC would be “ a unparalleled installation in the world that would answer science interrogative that are compelling , profound , and well-timed , and aid maintain U.S. scientific leadership in atomic physics . ”
The EIC continues a bequest of famous investigations into the structure of the molecule , including the Geiger – Marsden experiment , also called Rutherford gold enhancer experiment . It ’s kind of like an electron microscope for an mote ; the hope is that observing how the negatron beam respond to strike a high - energy nucleus will reveal great detail into the nucleus structure . This includes how the smallest known nuclear mote , quarks , organize themselves in the lens nucleus and how the strong atomic force holds them together .
Though the Department of Energy support the task , the EIC ’s construction is still subject to further approval and funding , and the project will take more research and scientific advancement to realize all of its components . The EIC is estimate to be between $ 1.6 billion and $ 2.6 billion , and the DoE says that construction will take 10 eld once it begins .
molecule physicsPhysicsSciencescience policy
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