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- NEW YORK - Physicists
were scheduled to flick the switch on a machine designed to re-create the
biggest event in the history of the universe this month.
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- RHIC Within the two shiny tubes, the ion bunches will
race around RHIC's 2.4-mile ring in opposite directions
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- But unfortunately " or fortunately, say some "
that first effort has been delayed.
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- "Things haven't gone exactly as we had hoped,"
said Thomas Ludlam, a physicist and deputy project director of the Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island,
N.Y.
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- The delay may offer some relief to those who fear the
machine could create an unusually stable form of strange matter that could
ultimately destroy the universe. Even renowned physicists have admitted
the "speculative" possibility cannot be ruled out.
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- But RHIC officials have since reassured the public, saying
the worst will not happen.
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- "There is no chance that any phenomenon produced
by RHIC will lead to disaster," RHIC Director John Marburger promised
in August.
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- The RHIC machine is designed to create the same matter
that existed during the Big Bang " a cosmic explosion that scientists
believe led to the creation of the universe. To accomplish this feat, two
and a half miles of underground tunnel were laid down at the Long Island
facility. Superconducting magnets were then strung inside the tunnel and
cooled to -450 degrees Fahrenheit.
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- The next step in the experiment is to send two gold ions
on a collision course through the tunnel at the speed of light. Each time
the ions meet, they collide and, for a fraction of a second, break down
into the universe's original material " quarks and gluons.
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- But during trial runs in August, scientists noticed some
glitches.
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- First of all, components inside the massive tunnel had
shifted a few millimeters out of place. Normally, such a minute flaw would
not pose a problem. But since the ions will be traveling at the speed of
light, even this minute shift presents an obstacle that could eventually
slow down the velocity of the zipping ions.
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- <http://www.foxnews.com/science/originals/rhic_slideshow.sml
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- "It's like going through a tunnel when a section
of the tunnel has been moved to the side a little bit," Ludlam said.
"You have to make a jog in your path to get around it. At the speed
of light, that becomes sticky."
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- Ludlam and others initially weren't sure what was causing
the slight discrepancy in the tunnel's passageway since the extreme frigidity
of the interior when it is cooled renders it inaccessible. Like the Mars
Polar Lander that recently vanished from detection as it descended on the
Red Planet, the unit's problem was difficult to detect.
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- "It's sort of like sending an orbiter into space,"
he said. "When things go wrong, you have to try and understand it
remotely as best you can."
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- It wasn't until the entire, sprawling unit was brought
back to normal temperatures that workers zeroed in on the problem.
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- RHIC This computer image shows the strong magnetic
field that an RHIC magnet produces
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- To chill magnets in the tunnel to -450 degrees requires
literally the largest refrigerator in the world. Ludlam describes this
cooling beast as a "large office building with a lot of plumbing."
The 22,000-kilowatt unit, it turns out, also had bugs. A slight leak in
some of the refrigerator's valves caused residue to build up, freeze and
decrease the unit's efficiency. Like a massive defrosting project, workers
are now working to seal the leaks and clean up the frozen debris.
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- These tasks push the first collision date back to March
or April. By that time, the tunnels should be cooled " and ready to
bang some ions. Ludlam says the delay is unfortunate " but understandable.
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- "It's a lot of work to make sure everything is aligned
properly," explained Ludlam. "All electronics, mechanics and
computers need to be absolutely precise."
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