THE MAGNET SYSTEM OF THE RELATIVISTIC HEAVY-ION COLLIDER (RHIC)

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider now under construction at Brookhav en National Laboratory (BNL) is a colliding ring accelerator to be com pleted in 1999. Through collisions of heavy ions it is hoped to observ e the creation of matter at extremely high temperatures and densities, similar to what may have occurred in the original ''Big Bang''. The c ollider rings will consist of 1740 superconducting magnet elements. So me of these elements are being manufactured by industrial partners (No rthrop Grumman and Everson Electric). Others are being constructed or assembled at BNL. A description is given of the magnet designs, the pl an for manufacturing and test results. In the manufacturing of the mag nets, emphasis has been placed on uniformity of their performance and on quality. Results so far indicate that this emphasis has been very s uccessful.