Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6

The Sciences ACO Light and Matter Museum

Nicolas Arnauda,b,∗, Martine Bessona,b, Henri Borieb, Paul Brunetb, Maurice Chapellierb,c, Andre´ Damanyb, Elisabeth Dartygeb, Nicolas Deleruea,b, Pierre Dhezb, Yves Ducrosb, Marie-Pauline Gacoinb,d,e, Jacques Haissinskia,b, Bernard Jean-Mariea,b, Jack Jeanjeanb, Roland Jolivotb, Serge Julliana,b, Guyve Khalilib,f, Jean-Michel Ortegab, Robert Riskallab, Patrick Roudeaua,b, Michel Sommerb, Christophe Sottyb,c,1, Georges Szklarza,b

aLAL, Univ Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Orsay, France bThe Sciences ACO association, France cCSNSM, Univ Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Orsay, France dFondation de Coop´eration Scientifique du campus Paris-Saclay, France eSynchrotron SOLEIL, L’Orme des Merisiers - Saint-Aubin - BP 48 - 91192 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France fLaboratoire Aim´eCotton, CNRS/Univ. Paris-Sud/ENS-Cachan

Abstract Sciences ACO is a non-profit association based in Orsay (France). It manages a Museum of Light and Matter visited by more than 1,000 people each year. In this unique place, scientists and cultural mediators preserve, exhibit and comment on items of the history of science & technology, to pass on the knowledge of this heritage to the audience. Sciences ACO visitors – among them many high school students and teachers – come to learn about the progress of science and the technology evolution over more than four decades. Sciences ACO is more than just a historical museum: it is a driving force for the development for outreach and pedagogical activities on the Paris-Sud University campus and in the neighboring towns. The history, the present activity and the prospects of the Sciences ACO association are presented in this article. Keywords: Accelerator, Collider, Education, Museum, Outreach, Storage Ring, Synchrotron light

1 1. Origin and history of the Sciences ACO associa- 10 and of the Paris-Sud University) [4] was set up in Or-

2 tion 11 say to build and operate a state-of-the-art linear accel-

12 erator (linac). It was operated from 1959 to 2003, pro-

13 3 1.1. The LAL-LURE accelerator complex viding high intensity electron and positron beams of en- 14 ergy up to 2.3 GeV. In the meantime, many upgrades

4 The Sciences ACO museum [1] is located at the cen- 15 were performed to improve its performance and major

5 tre of the LAL-LURE accelerator complex [2], which 16 facilities added, ranging from electron-positron collid-

6 was awarded the Historic Site label by the European 17 ers to synchrotron light sources. In the early 1970’s the

7 Physical Society in September 2013 [3]. This site dates 18 ”Laboratoire pour l’Utilisation du Rayonnement Elec-

8 back to 1956 when the ”Laboratoire de l’Accel´ erateur´ 19 tromagnetique”´ (LURE) was created in close technical

9 Lineaire”´ (LAL, today a joint unit of the CNRS/IN2P3 20 connection to LAL to develop a wide research program

21 based on synchrotron light: materials science, chem-

22 istry or structural biology. Nowadays, the LURE has ∗ Corresponding author 23 become SOLEIL [5], the French third generation syn- Email address: [email protected] (Nicolas Arnaud) 24 chrotron source (located nearby) while the LAL is still 1Now at KU Leuven in the Nuclear Spectroscopy Group. / Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6 2

Figure 1: Access map for the Sciences ACO museum.

25 a major laboratory whose research activities range from

26 participation in the LHC experiments to contributions to

27 the Planck satellite observations.

28 1.2. The ACO collider

29 The ”Anneau de Collisions d’Orsay” (ACO) stored

30 its first beam in 1965, two years after the observation

31 at LAL of the first ever electron-positron collisions with

32 the AdA collider [6]. Designed and built in Frascati un-

33 der the leadership of Bruno Touschek, AdA was brought

34 to Orsay in 1962 to benefit from the linac high particle

35 injection rates. This pioneering work opened an entirely 36 new field in accelerator science – in particular, the so- Figure 2: Aerial view of the LAL in 1981. 37 called Touschek effect was discovered and understood

38 while AdA was running at LAL.

39 ACO, whose operation ended in 1988, was first used 53 1.3. The Sciences ACO Light and Matter Museum 40 as a 1100 MeV electron-positron collider. It lead to im-

41 portant discoveries in accelerator physics and to many 54 As early as 1993, the ”Sciences ACO” association

42 pioneering measurements of vector meson properties. 55 was created by physicists and engineers who worked on

43 In 1973, ACO became the first storage ring in Europe 56 the storage ring. Recognized as a general interest asso-

44 available to synchrotron light users. Ten years later, a 57 ciation in France in 2011, it is still very active and is now

45 free-electron laser was successfully operated at ACO – 58 bringing three generations of scientists together. The as-

46 the second in the world, it was the first one in the visible 59 sociation program is twofold: to circulate the rich ACO

47 bandwidth and the first at a storage ring. 60 history (in particle accelerator, collider and synchrotron

48 Rather than being decommissioned and disassembled 61 light physics) and, based on it, to shed light on today’s

49 like almost all accelerators in the world once they are 62 science.

50 turned off, ACO was carefully preserved by the very 63 Sciences ACO operates a ”Light and Matter Mu-

51 people who worked on it. In 2001, the machine was 64 seum” – see access map in Fig. 1 – open on request

52 recognized as a French heritage monument. 65 and during special events: European heritage days, na- / Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6 3

66 tional science festival, etc. It welcomed about 1,600 vis- 89 2. Permanent exhibitions

67 itors in 2013 – roughly 50% students and teachers, and

68 50% general public. Joint visits with the historical Sci- 90 2.1. The Pierre Marin hall

69 ences ACO partners LAL and SOLEIL are often orga- 91 Pierre Marin (1927-2002) was a figure of the French 70 nized, since seeing real scientific and technological in- 92 accelerator community, the ACO group leader and one 71 struments renews the visitors’ attention and makes out- 93 of the founding fathers of the Science ACO association. 72 reach conferences more concrete. In addition, Sciences 94 After he passed away, his name was rightfully given to 73 ACO is also hosting and organizing various events, in 95 the large hall with thick concrete walls which houses the 74 particular on the theme of art & science. This not only 96 ACO collider – see Fig. 4. Visitors can go around the 75 widens the museum audience, but it also helps in getting 97 machine to look at its different components (injection, 76 more support from local authorities. This complements 98 dipole and quadrupole magnets, RF cavity, vacuum sys- 77 the Sciences ACO primary mission which is to promote 99 tem, interaction region, see Fig. 5) which are still part of 78 science and make people discover it. 100 today’s colliders or storage rings. In some sense, ACO

101 can be considered as an ”ancestor” of the CERN LHC. 79 Sciences ACO is more than just a museum display-

80 ing unique items. Thanks to the technical skills of its

81 members and to the countless hours they spend on site,

82 various working instruments are also presented to the

83 public. The association has its own workshop adjacent

84 to the display halls. Figure 3 shows a picture of this

85 workshop during the maintenance of a ”cosmic arch”,

86 a device designed and built at LAL and which allows

87 the public to discover the angular distribution of cosmic

88 muons.

Figure 4: The ACO collider in the Pierre Marin hall ( c Claude Men- neglier).

102 In addition to the ACO collider, various devices

103 are on display in this exhibition room: detector orig-

104 inal pieces belonging to the H1 [7] and NEMO-3 [8]

105 experiments, educational experiments (cloud chamber,

106 Helmholtz coils, cosmic arch, etc.) and a synchrotron

107 beamline rebuilt using real historical components.

108 2.2. The control room of the former LAL linear accel-

109 erator

110 A new room was opened in the museum in Septem-

111 ber 2013 to display the control room of the former LAL

112 linac. The actual exhibition, seen in Fig. 6, is not an

113 exact replica of the original setup of the control room

114 but uses optimally the available space to give the visi-

115 tors the best experience made possible by this historical,

116 scientific and technological display. This record of the

Figure 3: Maintenance of a ”cosmic arch” in the museum workshop. 117 seventies allows the Sciences ACO guides not only to

118 explain how this machine was operated and what its per-

119 formances were, but also to shed light on the extraordi-

120 nary advances of electronics and computing since then. / Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6 4

Figure 6: The LAL linac control room, on display at the Sciences ACO museum since September 2013.

RF cavity

Injection Vacuum system

Interaction region Figure 7: The Electron ronde.

2 Figure 5: Schematics of the ACO ring seen from above, with its main 134 by a Minitel gun. The diameter of its ring, shown in components highlighted. 135 Fig. 7, is about 50 cm and the electron trajectory is vis-

136 ible thanks to the helium gas which is injected in the

137 vacuum tube. Magnets of variable strengths show how

138 the electromagnetic fields act on charged particles and 121 This exhibit was achieved after years of lobbying, 139 how these properties are used to steer a beam in an ac- 122 first to preserve this room from disassembly and then 140 celerator. 123 to have it moved to Sciences ACO. And this project

124 could not have been successful without the dedication 141 This unique equipment is requiring careful operation 125 of Henri Borie who has been on the front line since the 142 as it is a prototype whose design is still being optimized. 126 beginning of this struggle. The association is currently 143 Yet, it has been on display during a two-week CNRS ex- 127 working on producing supporting material for this new 144 hibition near the Eiffel Tower in 2011 and should also be 128 room: a leaflet and various multimedia resources. 145 shown in 2015 at the famous ”Palais de la Decouverte”´

146 science museum in Paris.

129 2.3. The Electron Ronde

130 The Electron ronde, designed and built by the Sci- 2The ”Minitel” was a French text-only online service to which end 131 ences ACO association, is probably the world’s smallest users could connect through telephone lines, using a computer termi- 132 interactive electron ring model. It includes a table-top nal of which millions of copies were produced. This service can be 133 10 keV electron linac in which electrons are injected seen as a precursor of the World Wide Web. / Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6 5

147 3. Education and outreach activities

148 The Sciences ACO association is involved in many

149 education and outreach activities whose target ranges

150 from high-school students to the general public. One

151 such activity which is worth mentioning is a weekly sci-

152 ence club for a dozen of local school kids which ran for

153 three years in a row: it was an introduction to every-

154 day physics with a different topic for each session, illus-

155 trated by experiments whose results were used to under-

156 stand properties of the underlying phenomena. Another

157 example is a treasure hunt in the ”Valley of accelera-

158 tors”, organized every year during the open day of the

159 national science festival: participants are given a map of

160 the Orsay campus in which open sites hosting a particle

161 accelerator are highlighted. At each stage they have to

162 solve an enigma or answer some questions. A Kinect-

163 based computer game was also developed in association

164 with the local Engineer School ”Polytech Paris-Sud [9]:

165 the player’s goal is to make two particle beams collide.

166 Finally, more common outreach activities are also of-

167 fered by the association: public lectures, display of ed-

168 ucational experiments, participation in science and so-

169 ciety debates (e.g. about nuclear energy), etc. Locally,

170 Sciences ACO is also one of the main driving forces of

171 education projects on the campus of the future Paris-

172 Saclay Higher Education Complex.

173 As already mentioned above, Sciences ACO is re-

174 ally focused on documenting its exhibitions. Various

175 brochures are available for visitors while additional ma-

176 terial can be downloaded from the website. Moreover,

177 the association managed to draw technology experts’ at- Figure 8: Example screenshots of the Sciences ACO virtual visits. 178 tention to its museum: two virtual visits are currently Top: a visit included in an online virtual world; bottom: a visit based 179 being developed – see Fig. 8. on high resolution pictures (here a view of the ACO ring from the top, using a ”mini planet” projection mode). 180 • The first one is based on an online virtual

181 world and is created by a high-school physics

182 teacher from Strasbourg, Pierre Wild, and his stu-

183 dents [10]. Ultimately, it could allow to simulate a 195 the support of many partners and institutions: the LAL 184 particle injection into ACO, steered from the con- 196 and SOLEIL laboratories; the Paris-Sud University; the 185 trol room of the linac. 197 department (Essonne) and the region (Ile-de-France);

186 • The other uses 360-degree high resolution pictures 198 the two neighboring cities Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay;

187 on which links can be superimposed to navigate in 199 finally the CNRS/IN2P3.

188 the museum, open explanatory popup texts, watch 200 While extending the size of its exhibition and improv-

189 videos, etc. This functionality [11] is provided by 201 ing the items on display, Sciences ACO is facing several

190 Sylvain Crouzier from the Paris-Sud University. 202 recurring problems. First, its premises are falling into

203 disuse and require extensive (and expensive!) refurbish-

204 ment. Then, the facility is still classified as nuclear in- 191 4. Prospects and challenges 205 stallation and hence its access is strictly controlled; in

192 Since its founding more than 20 years ago, the asso- 206 particular, all visits must be cleared in advance. This is-

193 ciation always had to fight against limited resources – 207 sue may be fixed in the near future if the museum main

194 both in terms of manpower and money. It benefits from 208 piece, namely the ACO storage ring (whose decommis- / Nuclear Physics B Proceedings Supplement 00 (2014) 1–6 6

209 sioning was achieved years ago) could be ”administra- 239 Acknowledgment

210 tively decoupled” from the linac areas which are still 240 Sciences ACO wishes to thank its long term part- 211 radioactive (and closed to the public). Finally, Sciences 241 ners whose support is essential to the running of the 212 ACO is a remote museum, located on a university cam- 242 association: the LAL and SOLEIL laboratories; the 213 pus, which needs to be advertised again and again to 243 Paris-Sud University; the department (Essonne) and 214 attract local people. 244 the region (Ile-de-France); the two neighboring cities

245 Bures-sur-Yvette and Orsay; finally, the CNRS/IN2P3. Sciences ACO membership [according to age] 8 246 The association would also like to thank the ”Unite´

247 demant´ element` de l’installation nucleaire´ de base 106 7 248 (LURE)” (UDIL) for its help and support to run the Sci-

6 249 ences ACO museum during the past decade.

5

250 References 4 Age

251 [1] Sciences ACO, http://www.sciencesaco.fr. 3 252 [2] P. Marin, Un demi-sicle d’accel´ erateurs´ de particules, Dauphin, 253 2009. 2 254 [3] N. Arnaud, J. Ha¨ıssinski, The LAL-LURE accelerator complex, 255 1 a new EPS historic site, Europhysicsnews 44 (6) (2013) 4–5. 256 [4] Laboratoire de l’Accel´ erateur´ Lineaire,´ http://www.lal.

0 257 in2p3.fr. <25 25-35 35-45 45-55 55-65 65-75 75-85 >85 258 [5] SOLEIL Synchrotron, http://www.synchrotron-soleil. 259 fr/portal/page/portal/Accueil. Figure 9: Distribution of the age of the active Sciences ACO members. 260 [6] C. Bernardini, AdA:The first electron-positron col- 261 lider, Phys.Perspect. 6 (2004) 156–183. doi:10.1007/ 262 s00016-003-0202-y. 263 [7] The H1 experiment at HERA, http://h1.desy.de. 215 A key challenge ahead for the association is shown in 264 [8] The Neutrino Ettore Majorana Observatory, http://nemo. 265 in2p3.fr. 216 Fig. 9: the age distribution of the association members 266 [9] Polytech Paris-Sud, http://www.polytech.u-psud.fr/ 217 is peaking above 70 years old. To strengthen the work 267 fr/index.html. 218 done so far and continue to grow, Sciences ACO has 268 [10] See for instance http://www.dailymotion.com/video/ 219 to recruit new and younger members who will take over 269 x1yq339_jeux-serieux-astroparticules-2014_ 270 school. 220 from the generation who worked on the storage ring and 271 [11] Visites virtuelles de l’Universite´ Paris-Sud, http: 221 had the idea to turn this machine into a museum. 272 //www.visites-virtuelles.u-psud.fr/?s=pano42&s= 273 pano111&h=32&v=0&f=90.

222 5. Conclusions

223 The Sciences ACO Light and Matter Museum is a

224 special place to talk about the history of science and

225 technology over more than four decades. Fueled by the

226 enthusiasm and the energy of the members of the asso-

227 ciation, it displays several rare (if not unique) museog-

228 raphy elements, among which the ACO collider and the

229 control room of the former LAL linac. Hundreds of peo-

230 ple, from school students to the general public, visit its

231 exhibitions every year and can see home-made educa-

232 tional experiments, like the ”Electron Ronde”.

233 All of this has been obtained by a small group of ded-

234 icated individuals, within the limited financial resources

235 of the association and an essential institutional support.

236 In spite of its past and present achievements, Sciences

237 ACO will have to find ways of renewing its membership

238 in order to amplify its educational and cultural impact.