LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/ACCELERATORS/BEVATRON

Bevatron shut down for generator repair (fatigue cracks)

Image File

97502180

Title

Bevatron shut down for generator repair (fatigue cracks)

Description

Fatigue cracks in Bevatron generators' field poles were discovered by electronics technician Willie Thompson during a routine inspection last month. Repairs are under way, and the Bevatron should be back in business sometime this spring. The Bevatron first went into operation in 1954. At that time, it was the largest, most powerful accelerator in the world. It continued to work at the forefront of physics for the next forty years. The Bevatron played the leading role in three of the most important discoveries of particle physics: experimental studies of "strange" particles leading to the discovery of parity nonconservation (the first known example of a lack of symmetry in nature); the discovery of nuclear antimatter (the antiprotons and the antineutron); and the discovery of the "resonances" -- the particle explosion of the 1960's that led to the development of the quark model and the current understanding of the basic nature of matter. In the 1970s, the Bevatron seemed to be nearing the end of its useful career in high-energy physics, and there was talk of shutting it down. Nevertheless, it was given a productive new lease on life through the invention of the Bevalac, in which the Bevatron was linked to the SuperHILAC linear accelerator. Nuclei begin their journey in the SuperHILAC and then were passed through a transfer line to the Bevatron, where they were accelerated almost to the speed of light. With the later addition of an improved vacuum system and other modifications, the Bevalac became the only machine the world capable of accelerating all of the elements of the periodic table to relativistic energies. The Bevatron/Bevalac finally ceased operations on February 21, 1993. - JG

Citation Caption

Magnet, Vol.11, No.1, January 1967

Date

1/67

People

Willie Thompson

TEID Doc ID

XBD9705-02180.TIF