But it managed to collide two beams of gold ions.

The experiment used gold ions moving at nearly the speed of light and colliding head on to produce the antiparticle.

It said no mechanism exists that could squeeze the gold ions used at RHIC to the tiny size required to create a black hole.

The other ring holds the usual gold ions.

Physicists collide gold ions together to produce a quark-gluon plasma, similar to that which existed in the first instant after the Big Bang.

Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer, which will actually dissolve a virtually undetectable amount of gold, forming gold ions (Au).

This results in a removal of gold ions from solution and allows further oxidation of gold to take place.

During the extraction phase, the gold ions form complex ions with the cyanide:

It is designed to smash gold ions to create a never-seen form of matter called quark-gluon plasma.

The $600 million project, involving hundreds of scientists from several countries, constructed a 2.4-mile circular tunnel for transmitting beams of gold ions.