physics

Proton Synchrotron

Proton Synchrotron is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Proton Synchrotron rather than just read about it. In short: The Proton Synchrotron (PS, sometimes also referred to as CPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN. It is CERN's first synchrotron, beginning its operation in 1959.

Key takeaways

Proton Synchrotron belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Proton Synchrotron to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Proton Synchrotron from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Proton Synchrotron (PS, sometimes also referred to as CPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN. It is CERN's first synchrotron, beginning its operation in 1959. For a brief period the PS was the world's highest energy particle accelerator. It has since served as a pre-accelerator for the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) and the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), and is currently part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator complex. In addition to protons, PS has accelerated alpha particles, oxygen and sulfur nuclei, electrons, positrons, and antiprotons. Today, the PS is part of CERN's accelerator complex. It accelerates protons for the LHC as well as a number of other experimental facilities at CERN. Using a negative hydrogen ion source, the ions are first accelerated to the energy of 160 MeV in the linear accelerator Linac 4. The hydrogen ion is then stripped of both electrons, leaving only the nucleus containing one proton, which is injected into the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB), which accelerates the protons to 2 GeV, followed by the PS, which pushes the beam to 25 GeV. The protons are then sent to the Super Proton Synchrotron, and accelerated to 450 GeV before they are injected into the LHC. The PS also accelerates heavy ions from the Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) at an energy of 72 MeV, for collisions in the LHC.

Background The synchrotron (as in Proton Synchrotron) is a type of cyclic particle accelerator, descended from the cyclotron, in which the accelerating particle beam travels around a fixed path. The magnetic field which bends the particle beam into its fixed path increases with time, and is synchronized to the increasing energy of the particles. As the particles travels around the fixed circular path they will oscillate around their equilibrium orbit, a phenomenon called betatron oscillations. In a conventional synchrotron the focusing of the circulating particles is achieved by weak focusing: the magnetic field that guides the particles around the fixed radius decreases slightly with radius, causing the orbits of the particles with slightly different positions to approximate each other. The amount of focusing in this way is not very great, and consequently the amplitudes of the betatron oscillations are large. Weak focusing requires a large vacuum chamber, and consequently big magnets. Most of the cost of a conventional synchrotron is the magnets. The PS was the first accelerator at CERN that made use of the alternating-gradient principle, also called strong focusing: quadrupole magnets are used to alternately focus horizontally and vertically many times around the circumference of the accelerator. The focusing of the particle can in theory become as strong as one wishes, and the amplitude of the betatron oscillations as small as desired. The net result is that you can reduce the cost of the magnets.

Operational history

Preliminary studies When early in the 1950s the plans for a European laboratory of particle physics began to take shape, two different accelerator projects emerged. One machine was to be of standard type, easy and relatively fast and cheap to build: the synchrocyclotron, achieving collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 600 MeV. The second device was a much more ambitious undertaking: an accelerator bigger than any other then existing, a synchrotron that could accelerate protons up to an energy of 10 GeV – the PS. By May 1952 a design group was set up with Odd Dahl in charge. Other members of the group were among others Rolf Widerøe, Frank Kenneth Goward, and John Adams. After a visit to the Cosmotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US, the group learnt of a new idea for making cheaper and higher energy machines: alternating-gradient focusing. The idea was so attractive that the study of a 10 GeV synchrotron was dropped, and a study of a machine implementing the new idea initiated. Using this principle a 30 GeV accelerator could be built for the same cost as a 10 GeV accelerator using weak focusing. However, the stronger focusing the higher a precision of alignment of magnets required. This proved a serious problem in the construction of the accelerator. A second problem in the construction period was the machines behavior at an energy called "transition energy". At this point the relative increase in particle velocity changes from being greater to being smaller, causing the amplitude of the betatron oscillation to go to zero and loss of stability in the beam. This was solved by a jump, or a sudden shift in the acceleration, in which pulsed quadruples made the protons traverse the transition energy level much faster. The PS was approved in October 1953, as a synchrotron of 25 GeV energy with a radius of 72 meter, and a budget of 120 million Swiss franc. The focusing strength chosen required a vacuum chamber of 12 cm width and 8 cm height, with magnets of about 4000 tonnes total mass. Dahl resigned as head of the project in October 1954 and was replaced by John Adams. By August 1959 the PS was ready for its first beam, and on 24 of November the machine reached a beam energy of 24 GeV.

1960–1976: Fixed-target and pre-accelerator to ISR

By the end of 1965 the PS was the center of a spider's web of beam lines: It supplied protons to the South Hall (Meyrin site) where an internal target produced five secondary beams, serving a neutrino experiment and a muon storage ring; the North Hall (Meyrin site) where two bubble chambers (80 cm hydrogen Saclay, heavy liquid CERN) were fed by an internal target; when the East Hall (Meyrin site) became available in 1963, protons from the PS hit an internal target producing a secondary beam filtered by electrostatic separators to the CERN 2 m bubble chamber and additional experiments. Together with the construction of the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR), an improvement program for the PS was decided in 1965, also making space for the Gargamelle and the Big European Bubble Chamber experiments. The injection energy of the PS was raised by constructing an 800 MeV four ring booster — the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB) — which became operational in 1972.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Proton Synchrotron

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Proton Synchrotron claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Proton Synchrotron before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Proton Synchrotron ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Proton Synchrotron

In research: Proton Synchrotron appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Proton Synchrotron in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Proton Synchrotron is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Accelerator physics, Buildings and structures in the canton of Geneva, CERN accelerators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Proton Synchrotron outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Proton Synchrotron in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Proton Synchrotron means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Proton Synchrotron out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Proton Synchrotron in simple terms?

The Proton Synchrotron (PS, sometimes also referred to as CPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN. It is CERN's first synchrotron, beginning its operation in 1959.

Why does Proton Synchrotron matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Proton Synchrotron?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Proton Synchrotron.