Electron-Positron Pioneer

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Electron-Positron Pioneer Bruno Touschek Electron-positron pioneer In 1960 Bruno Touschek gave a talk on Emilio Picasso's compre­ hensive review of electron- electron-positron collisions that would positron machines, from AdA to the world's largest ring, LEP change the face of physics. Last November, at CERN, introduced the 30 years after his death, physicists present role of electron- positron physics. Guido Alta- gathered to celebrate Touschek's work. relli stressed the prominent role of LEP and its US counter­ part, Stanford's SLC, in the On 16 November 1998 the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati detailed confirmation of the celebrated the memory of Bruno Touschek, the spiritual father of Standard Model, our best electron-positron physics, on the 30th anniversary of his premature description of elementary death. On the occasion, Frascati announced the institution of the Bruno Touschek in 1964. particle interactions so far. Bruno Touschek grant for high-school students who excel in science. LEP is in the forefront of the After escaping from a concentration camp during the Second search for physics beyond the Standard Model. One hint of such World War, the Austrian-born Touschek began work in Gottingen and new physics might be the recent results from the SuperKamiokande Glasgow, and eventually reached Rome in 1952. On 7 March 1960 Collaboration in Japan, looking at neutrinos produced by cosmic he gave a historic seminar at Frascati that would change the face of rays in the Earth's atmosphere and which suggest neutrino oscil­ physics. Pointing out the importance of carrying out a systematic lations. CERN Director-General Luciano Maiani showed why this is so study of electron-positron collisions, he suggested that this could be exciting and underlined the importance of conducting accelerator achieved by constructing a single magnetic ring in which electrons experiments under controlled conditions to explore neutrino masses and positrons circulate at the same energy but in opposite direc­ and mixings. Projects for such experiments are already under way, tions. Soon afterwards, the first electron-positron accumulation ring, both in Japan and the USA, but there is still room for Europe to AdA, was built under his leadership in Frascati. participate in such a venture. The question "Is a meaningful The memorial meeting, held in the main auditorium of the labor­ international scientific programme possible?" begs an answer. atory, named after Touschek, was the occasion for distinguished For the immediate future, Frascati will again be in the forefront of physicists to review the past, present and future of this still dynamic electron-positron physics with the new DAFNE phi-factory, which field of research. After Touschek's close friends and collaborators, obtained its first collisions last March. Miro Preger explained how Giorgio Salvini and Carlo Bernardini, recalled his brilliant person­ the machine has already exceeded a luminosity of 1030 persq.cm ality and the "glorious days" of AdA, Jacques Haissinski described per s operating with only one bunch of electrons and one of the second step of this pioneering work - the move of AdA to Orsay, positrons. In the near future the machine is expected to run with and the subsequent construction of the ACO ring in that laboratory. more than 100 bunches per beam to reach the design record Revolutionary results then luminosity of 5 x 1032. flowed from electron-positron The reason behind such a high luminosity was explained by Paolo rings all over the world. In Franzini: it will allow about 5000 phis per second to be produced particular, in the early 1970s and will detect their subsequent decays into charged or neutral kaon electron-positron collisions pairs. Their study should shed light on the long-standing puzzle of helped change our view of the violation of CP symmetry. A new big detector, KLOE, built for this hadrons (particles that, like purpose, is a common effort by more than 120 physicists from Italy, the proton and the pion, and Germany, the USA, Russia, China and Israel, and initial results are unlike the electron, carry the eagerly awaited. "strong" force) from elemen­ For the longer term future, the electron-positron community is tary to composite particles. focusing on projects for a new very-high-energy linear collider, as This was covered by Massimo presented by the final speaker, Marcello Piccolo.Three independent Testa, who underlined the study groups have already addressed this issue in Europe, Japan major role of Adone, Frascati's and the USA. A costed design is expected for 2001; after a selection second-generation electron- Carlo Bernardini, a colleague and approval procedure, construction could start in 2003. positron machine, in these of Bruno Touschek, addresses In the new century, Touschek's ideas will continue to guide our developments. the memorial meeting. exploration of the fundamental interactions. CERN Courier February 1999 17 .
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