Everything about The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center totally explained
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.
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."
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.
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.
1990 - Quark structure inside Protons and Neutrons
1995 - The tau lepton
Also, SSRL was "indispensable" in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In the early-to-mid 90s, the Stanford Linear Collider or SLC, investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector.
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 is 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
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.
SLAC developed and hosted the first WWW server outside of Europe in December 1991 .
Pictures
Image:SLAC_short_view.jpg
Image:SLAC_detector.jpg
Image:SLAC_pit_and_detector.jpg
Further Information
Get more info on 'Stanford Linear Accelerator Center'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://stanford_linear_accelerator_center.totallyexplained.com">Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |