SuperKEKB: back on track – better than ever
Particle accelerator SuperKEKB in Japan starts commissioning phase
After five years of upgrade work, the particle accelerator SuperKEKB at the Japanese research centre KEK has taken up operation again. In the first days of March 2016, the first stable beams of electrons and positrons were turning in the 3-kilometre-long ring. This is an important step towards producing particle collisions inside the similarly refurbished detector Belle II, which is still under construction by an international collaboration and will start operation in 2017. In the unprecedented large number of collisions of electrons and their anti-particles, physicists want to produce large numbers of B and D mesons as well as tau leptons. By studying very rare processes they hope to find new physics beyond the standard model of particle physics as well as an answer to the question why the universe consists of largely of matter even though equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been produced in the Big Bang.
FCC and more after LHC
Particle physics takes the long-term view. Originally conceived in the 1980s, the LHC took another 25 years to come into being. This accelerator, which is unlike any other, is just at the start of a longer programme, which is expected to run for another 20 years.
Even now, plans are being hatched for a large-scale upgrade to increase luminosity and thereby exploit the LHC to its full potential. The high luminosity LHC is CERN’s number-one priority and will increase the number of collisions accumulated in the experiments by a factor of 10 from 2024 onwards…
Bridging science through the LAL-LURE accelerator complex
On Friday 13 September 2013, the Laboratory of the Linear Accelerator [LAL] and the Laboratory for the Use of Electromagnetic Radiation [LURE] accelerator complex – located in Orsay, France – became the 8th EPS Historic Site. The ceremony took place in the “Pierre Marin” room which hosts ACO, a former collider and storage ring for synchrotron light, now registered French historical monument and open to the public.
After speeches from John Dudley, the President of the European Physical Society [EPS]; Martial Ducloy…
CAS course on Advanced Accelerator Physics in Norway
The CERN Accelerator School [CAS] and the Norwegian University of science and Technology [NTNU] recently organised a course on Advanced Accelerator Physics. The course was held in Trondheim, Norway from 18-29 August 2013 at the NTNU.
The course followed an established format with lectures in the mornings and practical courses in the afternoons. The lecture program consisted of 32 lectures, supplemented by discussion sessions, private study and…
Accelerators and Fibre Laser Symposium at CERN
The International Coherent Amplification Network [ICAN] held a two-day symposium on new fibre laser-based accelerator concepts at CERN from 27 to 28 June 2013. The symposium assembled a wide range of scientists ranging from particle physicists to telecommunications engineers to explore how a new architecture of high intensity lasers could contribute to the next generation of particle accelerators.The idea behind the use of lasers for particle acceleration exploits the fact that ultrashort laser pulses can generate electric field intensities sufficient to drive plasma wakefield dynamics which can accelerate electrons to GeV energies…
International Particle Accelerator Conference
The third International Particle Accelerator Conference [IPAC'12] is being held in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 20-25 May this year. The conference aims to be a truly international event, offering an opportunity for those involved in accelerator research, development and operation to communicate their work and keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the field.
The conference programme includes talks from outstanding speakers; poster sessions…
J-PARC: recovering from earthquake
The European Physical Society sends its heartfelt congratulations to the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex [J-PARC], for their progress in recovering from the heavy damage suffered during the tragic earthquake of March last year.
“In May 2011, we planned to restore beams at J-PARC by the end of December 2011. Since then, all the J-PARC people have worked day and night, and even weekends. Finally, on 9 December, the switch of the Linac was turned on…
