Pioneering High-Energy Nuclear Interaction Experiment (PHENIX)
Nearly 1,000 physicists from around the world are cooperating to build
several experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy
Ion Collider (RHIC), to capture and analyze the results of RHIC collisions.
PHENIX and STAR are the large experiments, or detectors.
The PHENIX detector will look for many different particles emerging from
RHIC collisions, including photons, electrons, muons and quark-containing
particles called hadrons. To do so, it will use large steel magnets that
surround the area where RHIC collisions will take place. Photons (particles
of light) and leptons (electrons and muons) are not affected by the strong
force, which binds quarks and gluons together into hadrons. Because they
can emerge from the interior of a RHIC collision unchanged, photons and
leptons can carry information about processes or actions within the
collision. By focusing on them, PHENIX will be able to "gaze" inside the
collision, and gain insight into its internal structure.
PHENIX has over 450 members from 45 institutions in 10 countries. The
Center for Nuclear Study (CNS), University of Tokyo maintains the
International Collaboration in Experimental Research in High Energy Heavy
Ion Collisions web server, and has collaborated with various U.S. and
Japanese institutions to construct PHENIX's RICH (Ring Image Cherenkov
Counter) subsystem and RICH FEE (Front End Electronics).
The PHENIX Computing Center in Japan (CC-J) at RIKEN Wako, will serve as
the principal site of computing for PHENIX simulations, a regional PHENIX
Asian computing center, and a center for the analysis of RHIC spin physics.
The planned computing capacity will be sufficient to meet the bulk of the
simulation needs of PHENIX. The planned robotic storage capability will
permit efficient micro-DST production as a regional computing center. By
providing a vital source of regional computing, the CC-J will also
encourage collaborators from China, Korea, India and Japan to be actively
involved in analysis of PHENIX physics data.
