Bevatron

nized that parity was not conserved in the weak interactions, which led to resolution of the tau-theta puzzle, the
understanding of strangeness, and the establishment of
CPT symmetry as a basic feature of relativistic quantum
eld theories.

2 Requirements and design

In order to create antiprotons (mass ~938 MeV/c2 ) in
collisions with nucleons in a stationary target while conserving both energy and momentum, a proton beam energy of approximately 6.2 GeV is required. At the time
it was built, there was no known way to conne a particle
beam to a narrow aperture, so the beam space was about
four square feet in cross section.[4] The combination of
beam aperture and energy required a huge, 10,000 ton
iron magnet, and a very large vacuum system.

Edwin McMillan and Edward Lofgren on the shielding of the

Bevatron. The shielding was only added later, after initial operations.

The Bevatron was a particle accelerator specically, a

weak-focusing proton synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S., which began operating in
1954.[1] The antiproton was discovered there in 1955,
resulting in the 1959 Nobel Prize in physics for Emilio
Segr and Owen Chamberlain.[2] It accelerated protons
into a xed target, and was named for its ability to impart
energies of billions of eV. (Billions of eV Synchrotron.)

A large motor/generator system was used to ramp up the

magnetic eld for each cycle of acceleration. At the end
of each cycle, after the beam was used or extracted, the
large magnetic eld energy was returned to spin up the
motor, which was then used as a generator to power the
next cycle, conserving energy; the entire process required
about ve seconds. The characteristic rising and falling,
wailing, sound of the motor-generator system could be
heard in the entire complex when the machine was in operation.

Antiprotons

In the years following the antiproton discovery, much pioneering work was done here using beams of protons extracted from the accelerator proper, to hit targets and generate secondary beams of elementary particles, not only
protons but also neutrons, pions, "strange particles", and
many others.

At the time the Bevatron was designed, it was strongly

suspected but not known, that each particle had a corresponding anti-particle of opposite charge, identical in
all other respects, a property known as charge symmetry.
The anti-electron, or positron had been rst observed in
the early 1930s, and theoretically understood as a consequence of the Dirac equation at about the same time.
Following World War II, positive and negative muons and
pions were observed in cosmic-ray interactions seen in
cloud chambers and stacks of nuclear photographic emulsions. The Bevatron was built to be energetic enough
to create antiprotons, and thus test the hypothesis that
every particle has a corresponding anti-particle.[3] The
antineutron was discovered soon thereafter by Oreste Piccioni and co-workers, also at the Bevatron. Conrmation
of the charge symmetry conjecture in 1955 led to the Nobel Prize for physics being awarded to Emilio Segr and
Owen Chamberlain in 1959.

3 The liquid hydrogen bubble

chamber

The extracted particle beams, both the primary protons

and secondaries, could in turn be passed for further study
through various targets and specialized detectors, notably
the liquid hydrogen bubble chamber. Many thousands
of particle interactions, or events, were photographed,
measured, and studied in detail with an automated system of large measuring machines (known as Frankensteins) allowing human operators (typically the wives of
Shortly after the Bevatron came into use, it was recog- graduate students) to mark points along the particle tracks
1

REFERENCES

5 End of life
The next generation of accelerators used strong focusing, and required much smaller apertures, and thus much
cheaper magnets. The CERN PS (Proton Synchrotron,
1959) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory AGS
(Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, 1960) were the rst
next-generation machines, with an aperture roughly an order of magnitude less in both transverse directions, and
reaching 30 GeV proton energy, yet with a less massive
magnet ring. For comparison, the circulating beams in
the Large Hadron Collider, with ~11,000 times higher energy and enormously higher intensity than the Bevatron,
are conned to a space on the order of 1 mm in crosssection, and focused down to 16 micrometres at the intersection collision regions, while the eld of the bending
magnets is only about ve times higher.
The demolition of the Bevatron began in 2009 by Clauss
Construction of Lakeside CA and completed in 2011.

6 See also
First tracks observed in liquid hydrogen bubble chamber at the
Bevatron

and punch their coordinates into IBM cards, using a foot

pedal. The cards decks were then analyzed by earlygeneration computers, which reconstructed the threedimensional tracks through the magnetic elds, and computed the momenta and energy of the particles. Computer programs, extremely complex for their time, then
tted the track data associated with a given event to estimate the energies, masses, and identities of the particles
produced.
This period, when hundreds of new particles and excited
states were suddenly revealed, marked the beginning of
a new era in elementary particle physics. Luis Alvarez
inspired and directed much of this work, for which he
received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1968.

Particle accelerator: Generalities on various types

Alternating Gradient Synchrotron: 33 GeV strongfocusing synchrotron, next step after Bevatron
Tevatron: Fermi Lab accelerator, 1 TeV protonantiproton collider, largest current US machine
Large Hadron Collider: CERN machine, the worlds
most powerful when it became operational in December 2009.

7 References
[1] UC Radiation Lab Document UCRL-3369, Experiences
with the BEVATRON, E.J. Lofgren, 1956.
[2] The History of Antimatter - From 1928 to 1995.
CERN.(The cited page is noted as 3 of 5. The heading on the cited page is 1954: power tools.)
[3] Segr Nobel Lecture, 1960
[4] E.J. Lofgren, 2005

BEVALAC

The Bevatron received a new lease on life in 1971,[5]

when it was joined to the SuperHILAC linear accelerator
as an injector for heavy ions.[6] The combination was conceived by Albert Ghiorso, who named it the Bevalac.[7] It
could accelerate a wide range of stable nuclei to relativistic energies.[8] It was nally decommissioned in 1993.

[5] Bevalac Had 40-Year Record of Historic Discoveries Goldhaber, J. (1992) Berkeley Lab Archive
[6] Stock, Reinhard (2004).
Relativistic nucleus
nucleus collisions: from the BEVALAC to RHIC.
Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
30 (8):
S633S648.
arXiv:nucl-ex/0405007.
Bibcode:2004JPhG...30S.633S.
doi:10.1088/09543899/30/8/001.
[7] LBL 3835, Accelerator Division Annual Report,
E.J.Lofgren, October 6, 1975

[8] Barale, J. (June 1975). Performance of the Bevalac (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
22 (3): 16721674. Bibcode:1975ITNS...22.1672B.
doi:10.1109/TNS.1975.4327963.

External links
History of the Bevatron
The Bevatron E.J. Lofgren historical retrospective
account; excellent early pictures.
Pictures of the Bevatron
Shutdown of the Bevatron
Bevatron Building Slated for Demolition
Historic Atom Smasher Reduced to Rubble and
Revelry

Coordinates: 375239N 1221503W / 37.877392N

122.250811W

9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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Bevatron Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevatron?oldid=709215687 Contributors: Maury Markowitz, Azazello, Radiojon, Securiger, Xezbeth, Bender235, Viriditas, Egg, Ceyockey, Falcorian, Ashmoo, Ae77, Strait, FlaBot, YurikBot, Conscious, SCZenz, Dhollm,
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