Early history of the Cosmotron and AGS at Brookhaven
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Courant, E.D.
1989-01-01
Early work is described on the design and construction of the two Brookhaven particle accelerators of the 1950s, the Cosmotron and the AGS (alternating-gradient synchrotron). The Cosmotron, finished by the Spring of 1952, was the smaller machine reaching 3GeV and was the first to pass the billion electron volt mark. Suggested alterations to magnet orientations meant that the alternating gradients produced would stabilize the design. This ''strong-focusing'' idea was central to the second AGS machine, which also overcame the problems of resonances and transition energy, with the inclusion of an electron analog accelerator. (UK)
Strange particles: production by Cosmotron beams as observed in diffusion cloud chambers
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Fowler, W.B.
1989-01-01
Proton beams, from the 1GeV Cosmotron accelerator at Brookhaven, were used in the 1950s to produce strange particles. One big leap forward technologically was the development of the diffusion cloud chamber which made detecting particle tracks more accurate and sensitive. A large co-operative team worked on its development. By the mid 1950s enough tracks had been observed to show the associated production of strange particles. It was the same Brookhaven workers who developed the eighty-inch hydrogen bubble chamber which took the first photograph of the long predicted omega minus particle at the end of the decade. (UK)
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Lindenbaum, S.J.
1988-01-01
The first experiment at the Nevis Cyclotron by Bernardini, Booth and Lindenbaum demonstrated that nuclear stars are produced by a nucleon-nucleon cascade within the nucleon. This solved a long standing problem in Cosmic rays and made it clear that where they overlap cosmic ray investigation would not be competitive with accelerator investigations. The initial experiments at the Brookhaven Cosmotron by Lindenbaum and Yuan demonstrated that low energy pion nucleon scattering and pion production were unexpectedly mostly due to excitation of the isotopic spin = angular momentum = 3/2 isobaric state of the nucleon. This contradicted the Fermi statistical theory and led to the Isobar model proposed by the author and a collaborator. The initial experiments at the AGS by the author and collaborators demonstrated that the Pomeronchuck Theorem would not come true till at least several hundred GeV. These scattering experiments led to the development of the ''On-line Computer Technique'' by the author and collaborators which is now the almost universal technique in high energy physics. The first accomplishment which flowed from this technique led to contradiction of the Regge pole theory as a dynamical asymptotic theory, by the author and collaborators. The first critical experimental proof of the forward dispersion relation in strong interactions was accomplished by the author and collaborators. They were then used as a crystal ball to predict that ''Asymptopia''---the theoretically promised land where all asymptotic theorems come true---would not be reached till at least 25,000 BeV and probably not before 1,000,000 BeV. 26 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs
Accelerator design and construction in the 1950s
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Blewett, J.P.
1989-01-01
This article looks into the history of the design, construction and operation of four of the large particle accelerators of the 1950s, the Cosmotron and more powerful alternating-gradient synchrotron (AGS) at Brookhaven, the Bevatron at Berkeley and the CERN proton synchrotron in Geneva with which the author was involved. The author's own contribution was in magnet design for the Cosmotron and the radiofrequency accelerating system. He later worked on linear accelerators and strong focusing later used in the AGS with Nick Christofilos from Athens. Collaboration between CERN and Brookhaven continued following a British study of alternating-gradient focusing which showed up possible resonance problems. In 1953, the ''phase transition'' problem was overcome. The author's personal contribution to the AGS project completes the article. (UK)
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Adair, R.K.
1987-01-01
Robert Adair's lecture on Landmarks in Particle Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of Brookhaven National Laboratory. Adair describes ten researches in elementary particle physics at Brookhaven that had a revolutionary impact on the understanding of elementary particles. Two of the discoveries were made in 1952 and 1956 at the Cosmotron, BNL's first proton accelerator. Four were made in 1962 and 1964 at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, the Cosmotron's replacement. Two other discoveries in 1954 and 1956 were theoretical, and strong focusing (1952) is the only technical discovery. One discovery (1958) happened in an old barrack. Four of the discoveries were awarded the Nobel prize in Physics. Adair believes that all of the discoveries are worthy of the Nobel prize. 14 figs
From nuclei to hypernuclei: A retrospective view of medium energy physics at Brookhaven
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Chrien, R.E.
2000-01-01
A new frontier in physics originated with programs at two Brookhaven National Laboratory facilities--the Cosmotron and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. The development of this frontier over a half century is described, as it turned from conventional nuclear physics to the hypernuclei and the study of strange matter
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Chinowsky, W.
1989-01-01
Work done in the mid 1950s at Brookhaven National Laboratory on strange particles is described. Experiments were done on the Cosmotron. The author describes his own and others' work on neutral kaons, lambda and theta particles and points out the theoretical gap between predictions and experimental findings. By the end of the decade, the theory of strange particles was better understood. (UK)
The τ-θ puzzle: an experimentalist's perspective
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Fitch, V.L.
1989-01-01
This paper covers the period from 1953 when Κ meson properties were being established to 1956 when the theoretical framework for understanding parity nonconservation was published. Cosmic ray sources, stacked emulsions and balloons and later the Brookhaven Cosmotron were among the equipment used by the author to show that the tau and theta particles were one and the same. This forced him to the conclusion that their weak decay was violating the principle of parity conservation. (UK)
The postwar political economy of high-energy physics
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Seidel, R.
1989-01-01
This paper looks at the interfaces of politics, economics and particle physics in the period after the second world war. Particle accelerators were expensive to build, so politicians, before voting money to the Atomic Energy Commission, needed reassurance that personnel and the accelerators themselves could be put to immediate military use in the event of war. The creation of CERN in Geneva, a European project using big machines, gave impetus to American proposals for accelerators such as the Cosmotron, Bevatron and alternating-gradient synchrotron. (UK)
Accelerators and the Midwestern Universities Research Association in the 1950s
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Kerst, D.W.
1989-01-01
The birth of the cooperative research group, the Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA) is documented in this article, following the promise high energy particles heralded by the invention of alternating-gradient focusing. Regular meetings were established and theoretical research work concentrated on orbits, with the help of the new digital computers. Space charge effects for charge distributions in the beam and the radio frequency ''knock out'' diagnostic technique were also studied. Experimental work on the Cosmotron confirmed the findings and also led to the discovery and use of the fixed-field alternating gradient (FFAG) magnet for direct-current operation which occupied much of MURA's future activities. FFAG accelerators with direct current ring magnets were invented with greatly increased beam intensities. These in turn made colliding beam machines possible. The MURA group later built a 50MeV electron model of a colliding-beam FFAG synchrotron, later used for beam stacking. (UK)
Κ-meson decays and parity violation
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Dalitz, R.H.
1989-01-01
Between 1948 and 1954 many Κ-meson decay modes were observed, including the tau, pion and xi positives, in emulsion experiments all with masses around 500 MeV. An attempt was made to rationalize the various names for the new particles being discovered. A period of experimental consolidation followed. An attempt was then made to determine the spin parity of the three-pion system from tau plus decay using matrix calculations. New stripped emulsion techniques now permitted a secondary-particle track to be followed to its endpoint. Stacked emulsions were flown in balloons to study Κ mesons and hyperons using cosmic radiation. Later similar work used the new particle accelerators, the Cosmotron and the Bevatron as sources. The author showed that the tau plus and theta plus were competing decay modes of the same Κ + meson, but this meant that parity conservation was violated. Later theoreticians T D Lee and C N Yang provided evidence for this surprising idea from their work on semileptonic weak interactions. (UK)
Brown, Laurie Mark; Dresden, Max; Hoddeson, Lillian
2009-01-01
Part I. Introduction; 1. Pions to quarks: particle physics in the 1950s Laurie M Brown, Max Dresden and Lillian Hoddeson; 2. Particle physics in the early 1950s Chen Ning Yang; 3. An historian's interest in particle physics J. L. Heilbron; Part II. Particle discoveries in cosmic rays; 4. Cosmic-ray cloud-chamber contributions to the discovery of the strange particles in the decade 1947-1957 George D. Rochester; 5. Cosmic-ray work with emulsions in the 1940s and 1950s Donald H. Perkins; Part III. High-energy nuclear physics; Learning about nucleon resonances with pion photoproduction Robert L. Walker; 7. A personal view of nucleon structure as revealed by electron scattering Robert Hofstadter; 8. Comments on electromagnetic form factors of the nucleon Robert G. Sachs and Kameshwar C. Wali; Part IV. The new laboratory; 9. The making of an accelerator physicist Matthew Sands; 10. Accelerator design and construction in the 1950s John P. Blewett; 11. Early history of the Cosmotron and AGS Ernest D. Courant; 12. Panel on accelerators and detectors in the 1950s Lawrence W. Jones, Luis W. Alvarez, Ugo Amaldi, Robert Hofstadter, Donald W. Kerst, Robert R. Wilson; 13. Accelerators and the Midwestern Universities Research Association in the 1950s Donald W. Kerst; 14. Bubbles, sparks and the postwar laboratory Peter Galison; 15. Development of the discharge (spark) chamber in Japan in the 1950s Shuji Fukui; 16. Early work at the Bevatron: a personal account Gerson Goldhaber; 17. The discovery of the antiproton Owen Chamberlain; 18. On the antiproton discovery Oreste Piccioni; Part V. The Strange Particles; 19. The hydrogen bubble chamber and the strange resonances Luis W. Alvarez; 20. A particular view of particle physics in the fifties Jack Steinberger; 21. Strange particles William Chinowsky; 22. Strange particles: production by Cosmotron beams as observed in diffusion cloud chambers William B. Fowler; 23. From the 1940s into the 1950s Abraham Pais; Part VI. Detection of the
The radiological research accelerator facility. Progress report, December 1, 1995--November 30, 1996
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Hall, E.J.; Marino, S.A.
1996-08-01
The Radiological Research Accelerator Facility (RARAF) is based on a 4-MV Van de Graaff accelerator, which is used to generate a variety of well-characterized radiation beams for research in radiobiology, radiological physics, and radiation chemistry. It is part of the Center for Radiological Research (CRR) - formerly the Radiological Research Laboratory (RRL) - of Columbia University, and its operation is supported as a National Facility by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). As such, RARAF is available to all potential users on an equal basis and scientists outside the CRR are encouraged to submit proposals for experiments at RARAF. The operation of the Van de Graaff is supported by the DOE, but the research projects themselves must be supported separately. RARAF was conceived in the mid-1960s by Drs. Victor P. Bond of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and Harald H. Rossi of Columbia University as a research resource dedicated to radiobiology and radiological physics and was officially established on January 1, 1967. The RARAF Van de Graaff accelerator originally served as the injector for the Cosmotron, a 2-GeV accelerator operated at BNL in the 1950s and early 1960s. The immediate aim was to provide a source of monoenergetic neutrons for studies in radiation biology, dosimetry, and microdosimetry. In other major projects the energetic ions produced were utilized directly. RARAF was located at BNL from 1967 until 1980, when it was dismantled and moved to the Nevis Laboratories of Columbia University, where it was then reassembled and returned to operation. This report contains the following information on RARAF: RARAF user's guide; scientific advisory committee; research using RARAF; accelerator utilization and operation; and development of the facilities
Overview of Light-Ion Beam Therapy
International Nuclear Information System (INIS)
Chu, William T.
2006-01-01
compared to those in conventional (photon) treatments. Wilson wrote his personal account of this pioneering work in 1997. In 1954 Cornelius Tobias and John Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory (former E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) of the University of California, Berkeley performed the first therapeutic exposure of human patients to hadron (deuteron and helium ion) beams at the 184-Inch Synchrocyclotron. By 1984, or 30 years after the first proton treatment at Berkeley, programs of proton radiation treatments had opened at: University of Uppsala, Sweden, 1957; the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory (MGH/HCL), USA, 1961; Dubna (1967), Moscow (1969) and St Petersburg (1975) in Russia; Chiba (1979) and Tsukuba (1983) in Japan; and Villigen, Switzerland, 1984. These centers used the accelerators originally constructed for nuclear physics research. The experience at these centers has confirmed the efficacy of protons and light ions in increasing the tumor dose relative to normal tissue dose, with significant improvements in local control and patient survival for several tumor sites. M.R. Raju reviewed the early clinical studies. In 1990, the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California heralded in the age of dedicated medical accelerators when it commissioned its proton therapy facility with a 250-MeV synchrotron. Since then there has been a relatively rapid increase in the number of hospital-based proton treatment centers around the world, and by 2006 there are more than a dozen commercially-built facilities in use, five new facilities under construction, and more in planning stages. In the 1950s larger synchrotrons were built in the GeV region at Brookhaven (3-GeV Cosmotron) and at Berkeley (6-GeV Bevatron), and today most of the world's largest accelerators are synchrotrons. With advances in accelerator design in the early 1970s, synchrotrons at Berkeley and Princeton accelerated ions with atomic numbers between 6 and 18, at
Overview of Light-Ion Beam Therapy
Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)
Chu, William T.
2006-03-16
treatment volume compared to those in conventional (photon) treatments. Wilson wrote his personal account of this pioneering work in 1997. In 1954 Cornelius Tobias and John Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory (former E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) of the University of California, Berkeley performed the first therapeutic exposure of human patients to hadron (deuteron and helium ion) beams at the 184-Inch Synchrocyclotron. By 1984, or 30 years after the first proton treatment at Berkeley, programs of proton radiation treatments had opened at: University of Uppsala, Sweden, 1957; the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory (MGH/HCL), USA, 1961; Dubna (1967), Moscow (1969) and St Petersburg (1975) in Russia; Chiba (1979) and Tsukuba (1983) in Japan; and Villigen, Switzerland, 1984. These centers used the accelerators originally constructed for nuclear physics research. The experience at these centers has confirmed the efficacy of protons and light ions in increasing the tumor dose relative to normal tissue dose, with significant improvements in local control and patient survival for several tumor sites. M.R. Raju reviewed the early clinical studies. In 1990, the Loma Linda University Medical Center in California heralded in the age of dedicated medical accelerators when it commissioned its proton therapy facility with a 250-MeV synchrotron. Since then there has been a relatively rapid increase in the number of hospital-based proton treatment centers around the world, and by 2006 there are more than a dozen commercially-built facilities in use, five new facilities under construction, and more in planning stages. In the 1950s larger synchrotrons were built in the GeV region at Brookhaven (3-GeV Cosmotron) and at Berkeley (6-GeV Bevatron), and today most of the world's largest accelerators are synchrotrons. With advances in accelerator design in the early 1970s, synchrotrons at Berkeley and Princeton accelerated ions with atomic numbers
Obituary: Gerald Frederick Tape, 1915-2005
Hughes, Robert E.
2007-12-01
, 1942, and the twenty-seven year old physicist started a new career developing microwave radar applications. In his four years at the Rad Lab Jerry undertook a variety of tasks. His innate management skills were soon noted, and he served as a technical envoy to generals and admirals explaining the capabilities, and the installation and operational requirements, of this powerful new tool. He actively facilitated the installation of transponder beacons on aircraft and naval vessels. Much of his time was spent in England where he became Deputy Director of the British Branch of the Radiation Lab (BBRL). As the war ended, the Rad Lab was preparing to close, and Jerry worked with Leland Haworth, a Lab Division Leader of Radar Groups, in contributing their technical analyses to the massive permanent record of the developments and accomplishments of the past five years. Wheeler Loomis, the Associate Director of the Rad Lab, left to assume the Chairmanship of the Physics Department at the University of Illinois. Haworth, Jerry, and other lab emeriti also decided to reestablish their careers at this distinguished institution. Jerry became an Associate Professor and returned to nuclear research working with, and upgrading, the Department's cyclotron. It was a productive and rewarding period, but it ended in 1950 when Haworth, who had left Illinois to become Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), persuaded him to come to Brookhaven in a management role. Within a year he became Deputy Director of the Laboratory and started a new career in the management of big science. The decade of the fifties was a period of dynamic growth at Brookhaven. The Cosmotron and the Research Reactor became operational, new programs were initiated, and more advanced facilities were under construction or in the design phase. Jerry had responsibility for the administrative oversight of these activities, and he exercised it with such care and thoughtfulness that he quickly became an indispensable