1983191 20150618145458.0 oai:cds.cern.ch:1983191 cerncds:FULLTEXT cerncds:CERN:FULLTEXT cerncds:CERN DOI 10.1142/S1793626814300047 Inspire 1344716 CERN-ACC-2015-0015 eng Fischer, W Brookhaven Natl. Lab. Ion Colliders 2014 Geneva CERN 22 Jan 2015 mult. p High-energy ion colliders are large research tools in nuclear physics to study the Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP). The range of collision energy and high luminosity are important design and operational considerations. The experiments also expect flexibility with frequent changes in the collision energy, detector fields, and ion species. Ion species range from protons, including polarized protons in RHIC, to heavy nuclei like gold, lead and uranium. Asymmetric collision combinations (e.g. protons against heavy ions) are also essential. For the creation, acceleration, and storage of bright intense ion beams, limits are set by space charge, charge change, and intrabeam scattering effects, as well as beam losses due to a variety of other phenomena. Currently, there are two operating ion colliders, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at BNL, and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. CERN EDS UNCL SzGeCERN Accelerators and Storage Rings CERN ARTICLE Not applicable Not applicable CERN LHC BNL RHIC Jowett, J M CERN ATS 49-76 Rev. Accel. Sci. Technol. 7 2014 2924884 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1983191/files/CERN-ACC-2015-0015.pdf 6434164 http://cds.cern.ch/record/1983191/files/CERN-ACC-2015-0015.pdf?subformat=pdfa pdfa flora.berrenger@cern.ch n 201505 13 PUBLIC ARTICLE ConferencePaper