LEAR Not Here Decelerated from 3.5 Gev to 600 Operating Temperature Which Might Mev by the PS, It Was Initially Have Upset Their Instrumentation
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Physics monitor A candidate cosmic antiproton recorded by the AMS tracker. pointed to the less prominently signposted route of low energy proton- antiproton collision physics. This would open up new physics domains - spectroscopy, atomic and nuclear studies, and fundamental symmetries. Profits were expected in spectroscopy, hitherto explored using limited second ary beams or via electron-positron colliders whose selection rules offer only a limited menu. As the big push for CERN's high energy proton-antiproton collider got underway, a more modest effort also began for what became CERN's LEAR low energy antiproton ring. Grafted onto existing infrastructure, LEAR was constructed in the existing South Hall of CERN's PS synchrotron in just 16 months, and commissioned within the following year. Using only a small fraction of CERN's precious antiprotons, it particularly concerned for their began work for physics in July 1983. delicate detector, and during the Taking secondary antiprotons flight carefully monitored variations in LEAR not here decelerated from 3.5 GeV to 600 operating temperature which might MeV by the PS, it was initially have upset their instrumentation. A special symposium at CERN on 15 equipped with stochastic cooling As well as searching for antinuclei, May highlighted the systems to further shape the AMS picks up antiprotons, whose accomplishments of CERN's LEAR antiproton beams, and an internal spectra could reveal more low energy antiproton ring. With effort gas-jet target. information about the mysterious and resources at CERN at a In the machine sector, LEAR 'dark matter' which dominates the premium for its LHC collider, LEAR's became a showcase for accelerator gravitational behaviour of the experimental programme was skill and expertise. Different appetites Universe but is otherwise invisible. prematurely terminated at the end of require very different catering, and Discovery's flight crew brought the 1996, recalling how CERN's ISR the LEAR kitchen could handle Space Shuttle into land on schedule Intersecting Storage Rings had been anything from fast extraction, on 12 June. Although the NASA high sacrificed in 1984 to liberate stripping out a good fraction of the speed data transmission link to Earth resources for the LEP electron- stored antiprotons, to its impressive failed during the flight, this did not positron collider. ultra-slow extraction. In this latter affect actual AMS data taking. In the late 1970s, exciting new development, extended (multi- Resourceful NASA communications developments in beam cooling minute) spills could delicately peel off specialists were able to patch brought tightly controlled beams of just a single antiproton per turn - through some data via a link normally antiprotons within reach, opening the equivalent to having a controlled reserved for video pictures, and this door to high energy collider projects antiproton beam stretching over 10% sample verified that the detector which only a few years before had interplanetary dimensions. The was functioning correctly. The been but a dream. antiproton momentum could also be valuable AMS trawl of physics from While the high energy proton- changed at a few hours' notice, outer space will be carefully analysed antiproton collider route offered glitter providing additional physics flexibility. over the coming months. ing prizes, the same techniques also In 1987, LEAR entered a new CERN Courier, September 1998 31 Physics monitor phase, with the availability of CERN's physicists had succeeded in making dence (from the CPLEAR experi Antiproton Collector to refine the the world's first atoms of ment) for the concomitant but never antiparticle stacking procedures, antihydrogen - chemical antimatter. theless previously unobserved while LEAR itself was equipped with LEAR had in fact been designed violation of time reversal symmetry. its own electron cooling to with the possibility of antihydrogen For the neutral kaons, past and complement its original stochastic production in mind. Windows had future are not interchangeable. cooling. been incorporated so that such Another LEAR speciality was For the future, LEAR becomes the neutral atoms, which escape the synthetic 'exotic' atoms containing LEIR low energy ion ring to provide magnetic clutch of the antiproton orbital antiprotons, providing a nuclear particles to CERN's LHC orbit, could fly through the valuable new laboratory for making collider now under construction surrounding hardware and be precision antiproton measurements. (April, page 10). Also testifying to detected. However these windows As well as stopping antiprotons by LEAR's success is its progeny of had initially been blocked by other capturing them in atoms, antiprotons 'daughter' cooling rings - Astrid instrumentation, while it also took were also captured by (Aarhus), lUCF-cooler (Bloomington, time to perfect the gas jet techniques electromagnetic traps, enabling the Indiana), ERS (Darmstadt), TSR necessary to produce antihydrogen proton and antiproton masses to be (Heidelberg), COSY (Julien), Cryring in flight. compared to one part in a billion. (Stockholm), TARN II (Tokyo), Antimatter might be seen as the For the future, the AD antiproton Celsius (Uppsala), - which jewel in LEAR's physics crown, but decelerator, a simpler machine provide regional centres with world many physicists would say that this providing less antiprotons and with class physics capability for a 'discovery' merely confirmed, what only fast extraction (May 1997, page relatively modest investment. they already believed, and the real 1), will continue CERN's low energy physics contributions came in other antiproton tradition. The physics areas. programme already includes trapping Physics highlights The LEAR acronym could have to 'mass produce' antihydrogen at referred to low energy annihilation the rate of about 1000 atoms per For the world àt large, the most ring, for proton-antiproton annihilation hour, and new precision studies of memorable moment of LEAR's was at the heart of most of its physics. antiprotonic helium. The AD is career was undoubtedly the headline Using the Crystal Barrel, Obelix and scheduled to supply its first announcement in January 1996 that Jetset detectors, light particle antiprotons next year. LEAR may be spectroscopy (mass range 1400 - dead, but its physics tradition is still 2200 MeV) became a major industry very much alive. at LEAR. Notable highlights were clarification of scalar (spin zero, positive parity) meson states, with high statistics studies of many differ ent decay channels, and the sighting of the lightest glueball (composed of gluons, rather than quarks) and exotic particles with unusual quark and gluon assignments. LEAR also provided a new arena for CP violation, with valuable new parameters including the first evi- A special symposium at CERN on 15 May highlighted the accomplishments of CERN's LEAR low energy antiproton ring. Among those present were LEAR pioneers Dieter Môhl (left) and Ugo Gastaldi. 32 CERN Courier, September 1998 UNE HAUTE IDEE DE L'ENTREPRIS À 10 minutes de Vaéroport ïr * & A Ten minutes international de Genève, to Geneva International A au carrefour des réseaux LE at the crossroads of the F/C autoroutiers F / CH/ D /I, motorways, close près de deux gares TGV, TECHNOPARC TGV railway stations, rigi à proximité du prestigieux CERN. - PAYS DE GEX - to the prestigious C propose sur 40 hectares : des parcelles de terrains viabilisées proposes 100 acres (40 ha) of equipped site (achat ou location) * ft # pieces c des bureaux et des bâtiments mixtes (purchasing or re une pépinière d'entreprises offices i des services spécifiques d'assistance activity bui aux entreprises pour une implantation inci régionale et pour des relations avec le CERN Business Corpo un Bureau de Rapprochement Center c des Entreprises agréé par T UE. b CONTACT: VERS PARIS COMMUNAUTÉ DE COMMUNES DU PAYS DE GEX Technoparc - Pays de Gex - F-01630 Saint-Genis-Pouilly ST-GENIS-POUILLY TéL 04 50 42 65 00 - Fax 04 50 42 65 01 FRANCE E-mail : bregex @leman.com internet : http://www.leman.com/~bregex IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & MEDICINE Department of Physics, South Kensington, London SW7 Research Associate Positions in High Energy Physics The Experimental High Energy Physics Group at the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London, has Research Associate positions vacant. The High Energy Physics group at Imperial is one of the largest in the UK and has teams working on the ALEPH, XEUS, BABAR, CMS, LHC-B and UK Dark Matter experiments. The group has a strong tradition in both analysis and detector, electronics and software development. The successful candidates will be expected to contribute to the work of the ALEPH, BABAR or CMS experiments and to take a leading role in the work of the group they join. In addition, the group expects to join the CDF experiment later this year for the Tevatron Run-ll. When confirmed, another Research Associate position will be opened for this experiment and the group also welcomes applicants for this additional position at this time. Appointments will be made as soon as possible and would be initially for a period up to 30 September 2000 and may be extended. Salary will be in the range £17,869 - £25,785 including London Allowance. Applications, comprising a curriculum vitae, a list of publications and the names and addresses of two referees should be sent by September 28 to: • crane work up to 1.100 t individual capacity, in combination up ^^^^^^^H to 2.500 t • industrial mounting of pre-assembled parts Professor I. Butterworth, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London • heavy load and special transports up to a total weight of 400 t ^^^/X^^| SW7 2BZ, Great Britain Tel: (+44 171) 594 7851 • plant transfers • machine transports • recoveries/salvages Post-deadline applications will be considered until the positions are filled. 5chinidbaijer KG r *—^ 1 The College is striving towards Equal Opportunities Head Office Munich: 82153 Grâfelfing • P.O.Box 1149 IHI^^fll 82166 Grâfelfing • Seeholzenstr. 1 • telephone (089) 85 50 11 • telefax 85 11 24 CERN Courier, September 1998 33 .