Proton Synchrotron

The Proton Synchrotron (abbreviated PS ) is a synchrotron particle accelerator with 628 m circumference at CERN.

History

The proton synchrotron was the first time in November 1959 in operation. The opening ceremony of the CERN synchrotron was held in the presence of numerous nuclear scientists on 5 February 1960. With a proton energy of 28.3 GeV, it was up to the commissioning of the alternating gradient synchrotron in July 1960, the world's most powerful particle accelerator. The highest proton energy of a pond accelerator reached by then the synchrophasotron with 10 GeV.

With the construction of next -generation accelerator proton synchrotron came various roles as a pre, first erected in the 1970s, the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS ) was fed with protons. In the years 1989-2000, when the Super Proton Synchrotron itself served as a pre-accelerator of the Large Electron-Positron Collider ( LEP), the PLC was powered by HP with electrons and positrons. Since the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC ) feeds the PS, the SPS with protons and lead nuclei. In autumn 2006, a detachment of PS was supported by a new building with double circumference at a conference to draw up ways to increase the luminosity of the LHC. Planning from the beginning of 2009 saw before the construction of the Proton Synchrotron 2 (PS2) and the replacement of the pre-accelerator of the PS, which were then abandoned for financial reasons in 2011.

Operation

The intense proton beam of the proton synchrotron is used to produce antiprotons. The antiprotons produced were only slowed down for experiments with antimatter with the PS itself, to the specially erected for this purpose Antiproton Decelerator AD in July 2000 went into operation. From 1981, the SPS was used for proton -antiproton collision experiments, to the protons produced by the PS were only in a storage ring " Antiproton Accumulator " cached and then smuggled into pre-acceleration in the PS to the SPS.

The beam is directed in the PS by a conventional, non-superconducting magnets, so that the operation is possible at room temperature. By rebuilding the original beam intensity of the 1950s could be increased by a factor of 1000, the maximum proton energy is currently at 25 GeV. PS In addition to protons, electrons and positrons and antiprotons, alpha particles, oxygen ions and sulfur ions were accelerated.