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24 Apr 2017
Image above: The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is the second-largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex. (Image: Piotr Traczyk/CERN).
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is due to resume operation in early May 2017 and preparations are even ahead of schedule, by three days. On 21 April beams circulated in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) for the first time this year. All four elements of CERN’s accelerator chain – Linear Accelerator 2 (Linac2), the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB), the Proton Synchrotron (PS) and the Super Proton Synchrotron – are now in operation.
Measuring nearly seven kilometres in circumference, the SPS takes particles from the PS and accelerates them to provide high-energy beams to the LHC. It also feeds the SPS North experimental area where, among others, the Common Muon and Proton Apparatus for Structure and Spectroscopy (COMPASS), and the NA61/Shine, NA62 and NA63 experiments are situated. Since June 2016 the SPS also supplies protons to a new proof-of-principle experiment – the Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE).
There were quite a few interventions in the SPS during the extended year-end technical stop (EYETS), including a massive de-cabling campaign in the PS Booster and the SPS, which has paved the way for the installation of new equipment for the LHC Injector Upgrade (LIU) project. This project is crucial to the planned increase of luminosity – number of collisions – of the High-Luminosity LHC, the future upgrade of the LHC, operational as from 2025.
Last year issues with the SPS internal beam dump limited the number of particle bunches that could be injected into the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In response to that, a new beam dump was re-designed, produced, and successfully installed in the second week of March. This will allow the SPS to reach its full performance again for this year’s run.
Note:
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.
The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.
Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.
Related links:
Large Hadron Collider (LHC): http://home.cern/topics/large-hadron-collider
Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/super-proton-synchrotron
CERN’s accelerator chain: http://home.cern/about/accelerators
Linear Accelerator 2 (Linac2): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/linear-accelerator-2
Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/proton-synchrotron-booster
Proton Synchrotron (PS): http://home.cern/about/accelerators/proton-synchrotron-booster
Common Muon and Proton Apparatus for Structure and Spectroscopy (COMPASS): http://home.cern/about/experiments/compass
NA61/Shine: http://home.cern/about/experiments/na61shine
NA62: http://home.cern/about/experiments/na62
NA63: http://home.cern/about/experiments/na63
Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment (AWAKE): http://home.cern/about/experiments/awake
High-Luminosity LHC: http://hilumilhc.web.cern.ch/
For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: http://home.cern/
Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Iva Raynova.
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