ACCELERATOR DIVISION ANNUAL REPORTS, 1 JULY 1972 12/31/1974
The Accelerator Division was formed as a separate division of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1973. Originally called Physics II Division, it acquired its present title when Andrew M. Sessler was designated Director of the Laboratory in November 1973. Under the leadership of Associate Director Edward J. Lofgren the major activities of the Division comprise operation of the Bevalac, for high-energy and heavy-ion physics, and Advanced Accelerator Research and Development. In addition, there is a small amount of research activity with heavy ions by some members of the Division. Heavy ions were first accelerated in the Bevatron in 1971. In the period under review here a large effort was devoted to construction of the Bevalac project, in which the SuperHILAC is used as a source of energetic heavy ions that are transported down the intervening hillside by a focusing transfer line, and injected into the Bevatron for final acceleration to an energy of 2.6 GeV/nucleon. This facility is unique in the world as a source of relativistic heavy ions and has opened up a new and rich field of research that has commanded worldwide interest. Joint studies with the staff of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center on a positron-electron colliding beam device (PEP) have expanded in scale during this period. PEP will operate with beam energies between 5 GeV and 18 GeV with a peak luminosity of 10{sup 32} cm{sup -2} sec{sup -1} at 15 GeV and will be located at SLAC where the present two-mile linear accelerator will be used as an injector. It is hoped that funds for construction of PEP will be available in FY 76. Research on new methods of particle acceleration by Collective Effects, which had been a strong ongoing program for some years, has contributed significantly to understanding what parameters can be achieved and how they are limited by various instabilities. The production of high accelerating fields by use of electron rings has been demonstrated, and would be useful for heavy-ion accelerators. Work on Collective Effects was phased out early in 1973 as the efforts on PEP and ESCAR were increased. Detailed design on the world's first superconducting synchrotron was started in July 1973. Named ESCAR, for Experimental Superconducting Accelerating Ring, this is a large-scale experiment in superconducting technology as applied to accelerators and storage rings. Future very-high-energy facilities are projected to rely heavily on superconducting magnets on a large scale with an associated large cryogenic system. Over the years small numbers of superconducting magnets on a laboratory scale have been made with varying degrees of success; ESCAR is intended to address the problem of constructing a large number of reliable magnets with fields of high quality and good reproducibility, and of studying the systems aspects of a multicomponent cryogenic device of reasonably large scale. Applications to either a future pulsed synchrotron or a quasi-d.c. storage ring are obvious benefits of this research. A rapid start on this project has been possible because of the large accumulated experience of the LBL superconductivity group, which has developed rapidly-pulsed magnets and operational beam-transfer dipoles and quadrupoles in recent years. Members of the Accelerator and Engineering Divisions have also participated in a small program (funded by NSF) on the application of intense scanning electron beams for excavation of hard rock. Fundamental studies of the spalling mechanism have been carried on experimentally and a theoretical understanding developed. The conceptual design of a practicable excavator, based on presently available components and materials, has been developed and looks like an attractive possible solution to advancing the rate of hard-rock excavation by a factor of ten or so.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Accelerator & Fusion Research Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 937059
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-3835; TRN: US200820%%270
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Accelerator Division annual reports, 1 July 1972--31 December 1974
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