The Ion Collider Frontier

[Stephen]

Just read some parts of the RHIC safety report - at the vacuum instability part they say cosmic rays collision of iron have been observed up to only 2 TeV per nucleon. Does it mean the LHC will surpass that energy?
http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/docs/rhicreport.pdf

[Shadowdraxx]

2.76 is the LHC rate. at design capacity, but still this is only of academic interest, dont believe there is anything wrong with the energy level vs saftey.

still only someone with a better understanding can help you here.

worth noting that paper is what 10 years old too?

[Stephen]

I'm confident it has a logical explanation, I just can't find anything about heavy ion collisions in cosmic rays higher than that.

[Stephen]

I found this article (also from ten years ago)
http://theorie.physik.uni-giessen.de/~hees/publ/cup.pdf

The vacuum instability part said that heavy ion collision were probably conducted in higher energies than human accelerators, but it didn't give definite energy value. Does anyone know what is the highest heavy ion collision detected? Surely 2.76 can't be higher than cosmic rays, right?

[Shadowdraxx]

i would seriously doubt it, but this is a question for someone in the know.

[Stephen]

I tried to ask about it, but I didn't get a definite answer so far. Maybe you'll have a better luck
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?s=0c ... 582&st=285