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The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) 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.[1] The 2.0 mile (3.2 kilometer) long underground accelerator is the longest linear accelerator in the world, and is claimed to be "the world's straightest object."[2] SLAC's meeting facilities also provided a venue for the homebrew computer club and other pioneers of the 1980s home computer revolution, and later SLAC hosted the first webpage in the U.S. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline is the longest building in the United States.
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History
Founded in 1962, 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, a 2.0 mile-long RF linear accelerator, which can accelerate electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV, has been operational since 1966. It is buried 30 feet (10 meters) below ground and passes underneath Interstate 280. 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.[1]
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]
Also, SSRL was "indispensable" in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[6]
In the early-to-mid 90s, the Stanford Linear Collider or SLC, investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector.
In the July, 2008 the Department of Energy announced it intends to change the name of SLAC. The reasons given include better representing the new direction of the lab and being able to trademark the name, which Stanford University legally opposes.[7]
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.
SSRL
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 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 1980s, 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.
Other discoveries
- SLAC has also been instrumental in the development of the klystron, a high-power microwave amplification tube.
- There was a Paleoparadoxia found at the SLAC site, and its skeleton can be seen at a small museum there in the Breezeway.[8]
- SLAC developed and hosted the first WWW server outside of Europe in December 1991 [9].
Pictures
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See also
- Accelerator physics
- Beamline
- CERN
- Cyclotron
- Dipole magnet
- Electromagnetism
- Particle beam
- Particle physics
- List of particles
- Quadrupole magnet
- Spallation Neutron Source
- Wolfgang Panofsky (1961-84, SLAC Director; Professor, Stanford University)
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ Saracevic, Alan T. "Silicon Valley: It's where brains meet bucks." San Francisco Chronicle 23-October-2005. p J2. Accessed 2005-10-24.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry : Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory at SLAC Contributes
- ^ A New Name for SLAC
- ^ 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.
- ^ The Early World Wide Web at SLAC: Early Chronology and Documents
External links
- SLAC Homepage
- 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
- Dr. Wolfgang K. H. "Pief" Panofsky SLAC Director 1961-1984.
- Einstein's Big Idea (NOVA program includes SLAC footage.)
- The Stanford Two-Mile Accelerator - The Blue Book in PDF format
