PHENIX detector

The PHENIX detector (for Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) is the largest of the four experiments that have taken data at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven National Laboratory, United States. The PHENIX detector (for Pioneering High Energy Nuclear Interaction eXperiment) is the largest of the four experiments that have taken data at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven National Laboratory, United States. PHENIX is an exploratory experiment for the investigation of high energy collisions of heavy ions and protons, and is designed specifically to measure direct probes of the collisions such as electrons, muons, and photons. The primary goal of PHENIX is to discover and study a new state of matter called the quark–gluon plasma (QGP). Detecting and understanding the QGP allows us to understand better the universe in the moments after the Big Bang.