Stanford Linear Accelerator Accelerator Physics –design, build, maintain High Energy Physics – particle physics Astrophysics and Cosmology

Accelerator Physics Design, build, and run forefront accelerators New acceleration technologies Improvements in efficiency and reliability of existing technologies A science in its own right! Also a set of very challenging engineering problems.

What is an accelerator? A wave guide--accelerator structure A microwave generator –klystron A particle source -- electron gun A steering mechanism—magnets http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/

Electrons surf the electric field wave

SLAC

Accelerators as X-ray sources Basic concept – when fast moving electrons are deflected by magnets they radiate photons Synchrotron radiation –bending magnets in storage ring (synchrotron) Wigglers and undulators – additional magnets placed along straight section to “wiggle” the beam to make x-ray photons

LCLS Undulator

Particle or High Energy physics to understand the basic constituents of matter and the interactions between them --in answering these questions we are probing deeply into the workings of the Universe

Why high energy? 1. Energy is inversely proportional to wavelength Wavelength defines resolution --scale at which we can see 2. High energy allows us to produce new (more massive) particle types

Particle Physics Experiments BaBar –the B factory at SLAC experiment completed, data still being analyzed ATLAS @LHC –“Large Hadron Collider” at CERN (Switzerland) began running this year

Particle detectors a multilayered set of components (each layer has its own technologies and experts) detect and identify all particles produced in a collision measure as accurately as possible the momentum and energy of each particle www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/detectors.html

Particle Physics B Factory –BaBar Detector studying the difference in the laws of physics for matter and antimatter

BaBar Collaboration

Matter and antimatter in the Universe Laws of physics for matter and antimatter are very similar Universe contains lots of matter, very little antimatter How did that come about?

ATLAS @LHC One of two very large detectors for experiments at LHC Particle physicists hope for all kinds of discoveries with this machine Higgs particle ? Super-partner particles??? Indications of new dimensions of space????????

Astrophysics -- KIPAC Kavli Institute for Studying the Dark Energy of the Universe                                                                                         Studying the Dark Energy of the Universe                                                                                         Studying the Dark Energy of the Universe                                                                                         Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology experiments and theory http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/kipac/

Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Astronomy –observing and cataloguing the objects Astrophysics—providing physical models for what produces the observed phenomena “Particle Astrophysics” –that part of astrophysics where the phenomena are dominantly particle physics effects Cosmology –providing a physical model for the evolution of the universe

Some Particle Astrophysics questions What is dark matter? What produces the highest energy cosmic rays? X-rays? How do supernova explosions produce neutrinos? What causes the expansion of the Universe to be speeding up? (or what is dark energy?)

Fermi Gamma Space Telescope launched June 11 2008 detector built at SLAC http://www-glast.sonoma.edu/science/what.html

LSST Large Synoptic Survey telescope Under design –telescope to be built in Chile SLAC will compete to build camera --largest ever digital camera 3.2 gigapixels! http://www.lsst.org/lsst_home.shtml

Challenges for all this science Invention of new devices Precision engineering and control Making sense of large quantities of data Simulations Theory