The old molecule atom smasher at CERN , home to the world ’s most potent molecule accelerator , is lionize its sixtieth birthday . It ’s still run .
The Proton Synchrotron ( PS ) accelerated its first proton on November 24 , 1959 . It was the universe ’s highest - free energy accelerator when it first begin run . Though it ’s since fall behind the title , today it provide proton or heavy ion to a number of particle physics experiments , including the Large Hadron Collider ( which currently holds the championship as the largest and high - energy accelerator ) .
CERN was established in 1954 for peaceable study of particle and atomic physics , and the PS was among its first be after projects ( its first particle accelerator , the Synchrocyclotron , was completed in 1957 and dismantled in 1990 ) . Scientists were exalt by a visit to Brookhaven National Lab to build a synchrotron based on the alternating slope rule for build up a higher - energy accelerator . A synchrotron takes injected particles and flex them along a circular path using magnetic field slow ramped up and synchronized with the energy of the particles . The alternating slope principle was a way to focus the ray of light of particles by using alternating quadrupole attractor — imagine four magnets with alternating poles aligned in a plus - sign shape .
The Proton SynchrotronPhoto: CERN
As with any accelerator , it was a challenge in reality getting the thing up and running . At one head , scientists get the proton to go around once , but then that was it . They could n’t get them to keep going around for weeks , until finally , all the small little registration combined have it to work not just well but at the designed energy . you may learn a full account from 1969 written by Canadian physicist Hildred Blewetthere . But it was an exciting time once it really turned on and exercise .
“ I ’m secern that I shout , the first phone , but all I remember is laugh and outcry and everyone there shouting at once , pumping each other ’s hands , clapping each other on the back while I was hugging them all . And the beam went on , pulse after pulse , ” Blewett , who worked with other physicist to get it to that head , spell .
The PS accepts proton from a proton source ( basically a bottle of hydrogen gas ) first accelerated through another additive accelerator . The alternating magnets would station the protons around its 628 - meter ( 2,060 - foot ) circumference to 25 giga electron - volts . That ’s about as much zip as it pick out to elevate a grain of sand a tenth of an column inch , but it ’s also 25 times the rest mass of the proton , enough to get exploring the mellow - muscularity realm of natural philosophy antecedently inaccessible to experiment . In the first five year after the PS ’s twist , it ( and other similar accelerators of the epoch ) uncover a multitude of new corpuscle to make sense of .
scientist seize new , big accelerators and collider to the PS as metre went on , juicing up the energy of these collider in search of more subatomic particles . They were driven in part by a possibility ring the Standard Model of particle physics . before long the PS was supplying proton to the 400 GeV Super Proton Synchrotron , which in turn accelerated and supplied protons to the Large Electron – Positron Collider and now the Large Hadron Collider , the big physics experimentation ever built .
The PS ’s importance means it continues to be raise and keep . It ’s presently on atemporary shutdownfor work . Forty - eight of its 100 attracter are in the thick of being renovated . Scientists are pick the gas , and replacing pumps and and 3 kilometers ( 1.9 miles ) of pipes in the instrumental role ’s cooling system . Not a bad birthday gift .
So , happy sixtieth birthday to the Proton Synchrotron . Particle natural philosophy would n’t be the same without you !
CERNParticle physicsPhysicsScience
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