Massive Magnets Are on the Move: Repurposing Electromagnets for Research

janrinok writes:

Physs.org is reporting on repurposing large electromagnets in research facilities:

Magnets are at the heart of many scientific instruments at DOE's Brookhaven National Laboratory. They are not like typical refrigerator magnets, which apply a relatively weak and uniform force to magnetic materials. These electromagnets are often incredibly large and powerful, with variable fields that can be controlled by changing the electric current that runs through them.

One of their applications is to apply magnetic force to subatomic particles. For example, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is made of superconducting electromagnets that steer and focus particle beams as they circulate through the accelerator at nearly the speed of light.

To build these magnets from scratch or source brand-new ones, research facilities must make large investments in time and money. Fortunately, when experiments are upgraded or decommissioned, researchers can sometimes reuse magnets for a new purpose. The same electromagnets can be used for decades, placed in upgraded machines to help collect more precise data or even placed in entirely different machines to help carry out a brand-new scientific endeavor.

After 25 years of groundbreaking nuclear physics research, RHIC is completing its final run this year. Following the final collisions, Brookhaven will begin to transform this DOE Office of Science user facility into the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), the world's first collider of its kind.

While the upgrade will reuse much of RHIC's existing infrastructure-including one of RHIC's superconducting magnet ion rings-the EIC requires a new electron storage ring. To make that ring, EIC designers need hundreds of electromagnets to steer electrons around the 2.4-mile-circumference tunnel.

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