accelerator science

Fermilab’s FAST/IOTA accelerator test facility has successfully accelerated and stored its first proton beams, marking a major milestone in the lab’s R&D program for next-generation particle accelerator technology. This achievement paves the way for breakthroughs in high-intensity beam physics, artificial intelligence applications and innovations that will power future experiments like the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

John Byrd has been named director of the U.S. Particle Accelerator School. He succeeds Professor Steven Lund of Michigan State University, who has served as director since 2018.

Each summer, 10 upper-level university students participate in an internship that exposes them to professional experience in accelerator science and technology.

From University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sept. 28, 2020: Getting blasted with proton beams takes a toll on accelerator targets. As researchers begin to consider upgrading existing accelerators and building more powerful models, the durability of those devices is a major concern. University scientists are working with Fermilab in a new collaboration to study and improve the durability of targets and target windows, which will be important for neutrino experiments such as the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.

Fermilab and partners in northern Illinois have established the region as a leader in particle accelerator science and technology. Few places in the world boast such a concentrated effort in particle acceleration research, developing and building cutting-edge particle accelerators, and growing an accelerator-focused workforce.

Fermilab scientist Robert Ainsworth has won a $2.5 million Department of Energy Early Career Research Award to study different ways of ensuring stability in high-intensity proton beams. By studying how certain types of beam instabilities emerge and evolve under different conditions, his team can help sharpen scientists’ methods for correcting them or avoiding them to begin with.

From Physics Today, April 1, 2020: Fermilab scientist Vladimir Shiltsev provides a rundown of the advances that the particle accelerator community has made in increasing beam energy, power, luminosity and brilliance and summarizes the breakthroughs and discoveries that lie ahead for the field of beam physics.

Accelerator magnets — how do they work? Depending on the number of poles a magnet has, it bends, shapes or shores up the stability of particle beams as they shoot at velocities close to the speed of light. Experts design magnets so they can wield the beam in just the right way to yield the physics they’re after. Here’s your primer on particle accelerator magnets.

DOE has awarded a $1.9 million grant to Northern Illinois University and the Illinois Institute of Technology for the training of next-generation workers in accelerator science and technology. The program will cover student tuition costs for two years and fund paid research assistantships at Fermilab and Argonne. Physics professors Michael Syphers and Philippe Piot, both experts in particle accelerator research and technology, are leading the effort at NIU.

Fermilab scientist Alexey Burov has discovered that accelerator scientists misinterpreted a certain collection of phenomena found in intense proton beams for decades. Researchers had misidentified these beam instabilities, assigning them to particular class when, in fact, they belong to a new type of class: convective instabilities. In a paper published this year, Burov explains the problem and proposes a more effective suppression of the unwanted beam disorder.