Cryomodule 1 is now firing on all eight cavities. Cryomodule 1, Fermilab’s test cryomodule for ILC-type accelerating cavities and superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) technology, was powered up as a complete, multi-cavity instrument earlier this month. Previously, researchers had delivered power only to the individual cavities inside it. “We’ve operated superconducting cavities before, but this is the […]
Achieving cavity resonance
DESY scientists fine-tune cavity frequencies
Accelerator scientists have been busy creating and combining sine waves and nonlinear curves to form a straight, horizontal line – the flat top of a signal pulse of electric field-accelerating electrons. The flat, even profile signifies the untroubled transfer of power from source to electrons, one that occurs when a cavity is in tune with […]
All aboard the long bunch train
Collaborators for the ILC and for DESY’s FLASH facility learn from long bunch train studies at a recent workshop
For all the complicated engineering and hulking structures involved in operating particle accelerators, it’s the tiny, invisible particle beam at the centre of everything that is the machine’s reason for being. A probe for burrowing into subatomic places or a light to shine on molecular forms, the beam is science’s exploratory tool for the universe’s […]
Concrete plans for a platform
Pushing and pulling a detector on its platform brings technical challenges
Setting the stage for a particle collision event requires orchestration of Wagnerian proportions. Part of the production for the International Linear Collider involves perfectly positioning giant, unwieldy detectors in the particle beamline to capture data from electron-positron collisions. Recently ILC collaborators agreed that steel-reinforced concrete platforms would be used to steadily and nimbly move the […]
The 12-GeV upgrade of Jefferson Lab’s CEBAF accelerator
The US laboratory accelerator is doubling its electron beam energy to address forces at work in protons and neutrons
Why don’t quarks fly solo? Scientists have long observed that these particles, like Noah’s animals or instances of bad luck, always come in twos or threes. Yet nothing in the Standard Model of physics says quarks have to keep each other company. Scientists at Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, US, will soon be uniquely positioned […]
The DHCAL expansion
New additions to the Digital Hadron Calorimeter expand the perspective through which scientists may view hadron showers.
The CALICE collaboration’s calorimeter has grown a head and a tail. The Digital Hadron Calorimeter, or DHCAL, has acquired new active layers since scientists first began testing it last year. The additional layers, positioned at both the front and back ends of the detector, allow scientists to form more complete pictures of particle showers. “This […]
Impersonating bulk niobium
Jefferson Laboratory scientists ionise niobium to make thin films that may outperform their bulkier sibling.
Superconducting radiofrequency power only runs skin-deep, and accelerator scientists have been taking advantage of the phenomenon’s surface-crawling tendencies with a view to making high-performing, low-cost accelerator cavities. The trick is to manipulate a metal’s top-most layer so that it conducts just like a thick slab of superconducting material. Scientists at Jefferson Laboratory in the US […]
A conformal approach to cavity coating
Argonne scientists give metals a healthy superconducting coat, one atomic layer at a time.
A necklace of cheap metal with gold-flaked paint may look like solid gold finery, but eventually, the paint will peel, revealing a worthless trinket beneath. But an accelerator cavity of inexpensive metal with a nice niobium coat, though less expensive than a solid niobium structure, could actually hold more value for a particle collider. Scientists […]
The sound of accelerator cavities
Liquid helium’s curious properties help scientists focus on cavity defects.
Heat waves aren’t always a bad thing. For scientists working on accelerator cavities, they provide a simple way to locate hard-to-see surface defects, which can turn an otherwise superconducting cavity into a dud. Cornell University’s second-sound detection system homes in on a cavity defect, such as a pit hiding in the cavity wall, by tracking […]
Seamless cavity performance
Laboratories in the US begin to take a serious look at hydroforming as a method for creating ILC-type cavities.
Researchers in the US may soon be pumping their cavities into shape. Last year Fermilab scientists put out a call to industrial companies to propose a procedure for hydroforming ILC-type cavities. They hope that by next year, the selected company will provide Fermilab with three hydroformed nine-cell cavities for testing. “Hydroforming’s a good idea whose […]