Accelerator
Accelerator The main accelerator was an
RF linear accelerator that accelerated
electrons and
positrons up to 50 GeV. At long, until 2017 when the
European x-ray free electron laser opened. The main accelerator is buried below ground A portion of the original linear accelerator is now part of the Linac Coherent Light Source.
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. Grad student Barrett D. Milliken discovered the first Z
event on April 12, 1989, while poring over the previous day's computer data from the Mark II detector. The bulk of the data was collected by the SLAC 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, such as parity violation in Z Boson-b quark coupling. 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.
SLAC Large Detector The SLAC 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. Built in 1991, the SLD operated from 1992 to 1998.
PEP PEP (Positron-Electron Project) began operation in 1980, with center-of-mass energies up to 29 GeV. At its apex, PEP had five large particle detectors in operation, as well as a sixth smaller detector. About 300 researchers made used of PEP. PEP stopped operating in 1990, and PEP-II began construction in 1994.
PEP-II From 1999 to 2008, the main purpose of the linear accelerator was to inject electrons and positrons into the PEP-II accelerator, an electron-positron collider with a pair of storage rings in circumference. PEP-II was host to the
BaBar experiment, one of the so-called
B-Factory experiments studying
charge-parity symmetry.
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (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 meson was discovered. It is now used exclusively for materials science and biology experiments which take advantage of the high-intensity 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.
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope SLAC plays a primary role in the mission and operation of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in August 2008. The principal scientific objectives of this mission are: • To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in
AGNs, pulsars, and
SNRs • To resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission • To determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients • To probe dark matter and fundamental physics
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.
PULSE The Stanford PULSE Institute (PULSE) is a Stanford Independent Laboratory located in the Central Laboratory at SLAC. PULSE was created by Stanford in 2005 to help Stanford faculty and SLAC scientists develop ultrafast x-ray research at LCLS. PULSE research publications can be viewed here.
LCLS The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is a
free electron laser facility located at SLAC. The LCLS is partially a reconstruction of the last 1/3 of the original linear accelerator at SLAC, and can deliver extremely intense x-ray radiation for research in a number of areas. It achieved first lasing in April 2009. studies. The facility ended operations in 2016 for the constructions of LCLS-II which will occupy the first third of the SLAC LINAC. The FACET-II project will re-establish electron and positron beams in the middle third of the LINAC for the continuation of beam-driven plasma acceleration studies in 2019.
NLCTA The Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator (NLCTA) is a 60–120 MeV high-brightness electron beam linear accelerator used for experiments on advanced beam manipulation and acceleration techniques. It is located at SLAC's end station B.
Theoretical Physics SLAC also performs theoretical research in elementary particle physics, including in areas of
quantum field theory, collider physics,
astroparticle physics, and particle phenomenology. == Other discoveries ==