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Tag archive: geophone

Good vibrations at Fermilab

| 9 August 2007 Vibrations in the cryomodules in the International Linear Collider are actually not a good thing. The slightest disruption can throw off the alignment of the super sensitive beams and prevent them from colliding. The stringent beam dynamic requirements in the ILC therefore make vibration studies important, which is why Fermilab recently installed measuring devices called geophones in their Horizontal Test Stand. So for the team at Fermilab, detecting vibrations now, during an R&D phase, is actually a good thing because it means that they can learn how to minimise them in the actual machine when every collision counts. Category: Feature | Tagged: , , , ,

Spotting the Movers and Shakers

| 22 March 2007 Not all vibrations are good. With their 600 nanometres in width and only 6 nanometres in height, the ILC's particle beams could easily be veered off course if parts in the accelerating modules, for example the final focus quadrupole, moved by only a few nanometers. Monitoring and feedback systems will make sure that this doesn't happen, but it's even better to identify weak - moving - points and eliminate them from the very beginning. Category: Around the World | Tagged: , , , ,