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

Heavy ions accelerated at Bevatron

Image File

97502210

Title

Heavy ions accelerated at Bevatron

Description

Heavy ions accelerated at Bevatron. At a press conference called to announce the acceleration of heavy ions in the Bevatron last month, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory scientists meet local newsmen. Shown (l. to r.) are Harry Heckman, Ed McMillan, Cornelius Tobias, Tom Budinger, Ed Lofgren, Walt Hartsough. The press conference marked the fact that the Bevatron had successfully accelerated electrically charged ions (stripped nuclei) of the element nitrogen to 36 billion electron volts. This is the first time that heavy atomic nuclei have been accelerated to energies in the multi-BeV range. Previously, only light particles were available to experimenters at high energies. 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.15, No.9, September 1971

TEID Doc ID

XBD9705-02210.TIF