The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center,[1] is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
The SLAC research program centers on experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams and a broad program of research in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using synchrotron radiation.[2]
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History
Founded in 1962 as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the facility is located on 426 acres (1.72 square kilometers) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west from the University's main campus. The main accelerator has been operational since 1966.
Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics:
- 1976 - The Charm Quark — see J/Ψ particle[3]
- 1990 - Quark structure inside Protons and Neutrons[4]
- 1995 - The tau lepton[5]
SLAC's meeting facilities also provided a venue for the Homebrew Computer Club and other pioneers of the home computer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
SLAC developed and, in December 1991, began hosting the first WWW server outside of Europe[6].
In the early-to-mid 1990s, the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector.
As of 2005, SLAC employs over 1,000 people, some 150 of which are physicists with doctorate degrees, and serves over 3,000 visiting researchers yearly, operating particle accelerators for high-energy physics and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) for synchrotron light radiation research[2], which was "indispensable" in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry[7].
In October 2008, the Department of Energy announced that the Center's name would be changed to SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The reasons given include better representing the new direction of the lab and being able to trademark the laboratory's name. Stanford University had legally opposed the Department of Energy's attempt to trademark "Stanford Linear Accelerator Center".[1][8]
Components
Accelerator
The main accelerator is an RF linear accelerator that can accelerate electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV. At 2.0 miles (about 3.2 kilometers) long, the accelerator is the longest linear accelerator in the world, and is claimed to be "the world's straightest object."[9] The main accelerator is buried 30 feet (about 10 meters) below ground and passes underneath Interstate Highway 280. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline is the longest building in the United States.
Stanford Linear Collider
The Stanford Linear Collider was a linear accelerator that collided electrons and positrons at SLAC. The center of mass energy was about 90 GeV, equal to the mass of the Z boson, which the accelerator was designed to study. The first Z event was recorded on April 12, 1989 by the Mark II detector [1]. The bulk of the data was collected by the Stanford Large Detector, which came online in 1991. Although largely overshadowed by the Large Electron-Positron Collider at CERN, which began running in 1989, the highly polarized electron beam at SLC (close to 80%) made certain unique measurements possible.
Presently no beam enters the south and north arcs in the machine, which leads to the Final Focus, therefore this section is mothballed to run beam into the PEP2 section from the beam switchyard.
Stanford Large Detector
The Stanford Large Detector (SLD) was the main detector for the Stanford Linear Collider. It was designed primarily to detect Z bosons produced by the accelerator's electron-positron collisions. The SLD operated from 1992 to 1998.
PEP-II
Since 1999 the main purpose of the linear accelerator has been to inject electrons and positrons into the PEP-II accelerator, an electron-positron collider with a pair of storage rings 1.4 miles (2.2 km) in circumference. PEP-II was host to the BaBar experiment, one of the so-called B-Factory experiments studying charge-parity symmetry. The experiment was ended prematurely due to 2008 budget cuts.[10]
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL)
The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) is a synchrotron light user facility located on the SLAC campus. Originally built for particle physics, it was used in experiments where the J/Ψ particle was discovered. It is now used exclusively for materials science and biology experiments which take advantage of the high-intensity, monochromatic synchrotron radiation emitted by the stored electron beam to study the structure of molecules. In the early 1990s, an independent electron injector was built for this storage ring, allowing it to operate independently of the main linear accelerator.
GLAST
SLAC plays host to part of the GLAST project, a collaborative international project also known as The Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope, the principle objectives of which are:
- To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs.
- Resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission.
- Determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients.
- Probe dark matter and early Universe.
KIPAC
The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) is partially housed on the grounds of SLAC, in addition to its presence on the main Stanford campus.
LCLS
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is a free electron laser facility under construction at the SLAC site, partly making use of the last 1/3 of the original linac. It is scheduled for start of operation in 2009.
Other discoveries
- SLAC has also been instrumental in the development of the klystron, a high-power microwave amplification tube.
- There is active research on plasma acceleration with recent successes such as the doubling of the energy of 42GeV electrons in a meter-scale accelerator.
- There was a Paleoparadoxia found at the SLAC site, and its skeleton can be seen at a small museum there in the Breezeway.[11]
See also
- Accelerator physics
- Beamline
- CERN
- Cyclotron
- Dipole magnet
- Electromagnetism
- List of particles
- Particle beam
- Particle physics
- Quadrupole magnet
- Spallation Neutron Source
- Wolfgang Panofsky (1961-84, SLAC Director; Professor, Stanford University)
References
- ^ a b "SLAC renamed to SLAC Natl. Accelerator Laboratory". The Stanford Daily (The Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation). 2008-10-16. http://www.stanforddaily.com/cgi-bin/?p=556. Retrieved on 2008-10-16.
- ^ a b U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Review of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Integrated Safety Management System: Final Report. Washington: GPO, October 2005. p. 1.
- ^ Nobel Prize in Physics 1976. Half prize awarded to Burton Richter.
- ^ Nobel Prize in Physics 1990 Award split between Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall, and Richard E. Taylor.
- ^ Nobel Prize in Physics 1995 Half prize awarded to Martin L. Perl.
- ^ The Early World Wide Web at SLAC: Early Chronology and Documents
- ^ 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry : Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory at SLAC Contributes
- ^ A New Name for SLAC
- ^ Saracevic, Alan T. "Silicon Valley: It's where brains meet bucks." San Francisco Chronicle 23-October-2005. p J2. Accessed 2005-10-24.
- ^ http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=future-of-top-us-particle
- ^ Stanford's SLAC Paleoparadoxia much thanks to Adele Panofsky, Dr. Panofsky's wife, for her reassembly of the bones of the Paleoparadoxia uncovered at SLAC.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory |
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- SLAC Today, SLAC's online newspaper, published weekdays
- symmetry magazine, SLAC's monthly particle physics magazine, with Fermilab
- Early images of SLAC during construction
- SLAC beamlines over time
- SLAC Virtual Visitors Center - including science, history, photos and more about SLAC
- Einstein's Big Idea (NOVA program includes SLAC footage.)
- Info on the SLC (rather out-of-date, despite the date given at the bottom)
- SLD collaboration page
- The Stanford Two-Mile Accelerator - The Blue Book in PDF format
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Coordinates: 37°24′53″N 122°13′18″W / 37.41472°N 122.22167°W
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