The Largest US Particle Collider Stops Its Collisions - Science Friday Recap

Podcast: Science Friday

Published: 2026-02-09

Duration: 13 minutes

Guests: Gene Van Buren

Summary

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has ended its operations after over two decades. It provided crucial insights into quark-gluon plasma and will pave the way for new experiments in particle physics.

What Happened

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory has ceased its operations after more than two decades of groundbreaking research. Dr. Gene Van Buren, a nuclear physicist at Brookhaven, explained that RHIC was designed to study quark-gluon plasma, a state of matter believed to exist shortly after the Big Bang. Despite the shutdown, Van Buren emphasized that RHIC's findings were a cause for celebration, having provided significant insights into the properties of subatomic particles.

RHIC's primary mission was to investigate the quark-gluon plasma, which was initially expected to be a gaseous state but was discovered to be more of a liquid state with incredibly low viscosity. This unexpected discovery led to RHIC being described as the site of the 'perfect fluid,' a significant milestone in understanding the behavior of nuclear matter at extreme conditions.

Van Buren detailed that the collider worked by accelerating heavy ions, such as gold nuclei, to near-light speeds before colliding them. These collisions allowed scientists to probe the extreme conditions necessary to create quark-gluon plasma and study its properties in a controlled manner.

The decision to shut down RHIC was not due to a lack of questions to explore but rather a strategic shift in focus. Future research efforts will target cold nuclear matter using a new collider to be built over the next decade. This new approach will involve colliding small particles, like electrons, with large nuclei to probe the interior structure without heating the matter.

While RHIC's closure marks the end of an era, the data collected over its operational years will continue to be analyzed. Van Buren noted that the existing data would keep physicists busy for years, ensuring that the collider's legacy endures.

The global community of nuclear physicists is impacted by RHIC's closure, as it was a major facility for high-energy particle collisions in the United States. However, Dr. Van Buren stressed that the field is international, and physicists worldwide will continue to collaborate on new projects and share their findings.

Despite initial fears that RHIC could create black holes or strange matter, no such anomalies occurred. Van Buren humorously pointed out that similar high-energy collisions happen naturally in the universe, and RHIC allowed scientists to study these events safely in a controlled environment.

Key Insights