This hydrodynamic simulation shows the flow patterns, or “vorticity distribution,” from a smoke ring-like swirling fluid around the beam direction of two colliding heavy ions. The simulation provides new insights about the properties of a superhot fluid known as the quark-gluon plasma.
The Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC, which weighs 1,200 tons and is as large as a house, is used to search for signatures of the quark-gluon plasma, and to measure the behavior of other exotic matter.