proton synchrotron

The surface above the PS at CERN. With more than 45 years to be smoothed out and have buildings built around it, the ring-shaped hill containing the accelerator is not completely obvious--but it can be seen curving around on the left side of the image.

The Proton Synchrotron (PS) was the first major particle accelerator at CERN, built as a 28 GeV proton accelerator in 1959. It takes the protons from the Proton Synchrotron Booster at 1.4GeV. It was reused as the initial accelerator for the Intersecting Storage Rings and Super Proton Synchrotron, and will be reused in the same capacity for the Large Hadron Collider.

The PS machine is circular with a circumference of about 600 meters. It is a versatile machine which is (or has been) used for accelerating antiprotons, protons, electrons, positrons and ions.

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