Abstract
We evaluate accelerator science in the context of its contributions to the physics community. We address the problem of quantifying these contributions and present a scheme for a numerical evaluation of them. We show by using a statistical sample of important developments in modern physics that accelerator science has influenced 28% of post-1938 physicists and also 28% of post-1938 physics research. We also examine how the influence of accelerator science has evolved over time, and show that on average it has contributed to a physics Nobel Prize-winning research every 2.9 years.
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Notes
We have defined accelerator instrumentation as being developed after 1928 to omit cathode-ray tubes from our analysis, and to begin with the invention of the Van de Graaff accelerator in 1929.
References
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Acknowledgment
We thank Roger H. Stuewer for his thoughtful and careful editorial work on our paper.
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Enzo F. Haussecker is an Applied Mathematics Major at the University of California, San Diego and Adjunct Researcher at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Alexander W. Chao is a Professor of Physics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
Appendices
Appendix I. The years in which a physicist or physicists received a Nobel Prize for work related to accelerator science
Year | Name | Accelerator-Science Contribution to Nobel Prize-Winning Research |
|---|---|---|
1939 | Ernest O. Lawrence | Lawrence invented the cyclotron at the University of Californian at Berkeley in 1929.12 |
1951 | John D. Cockcroft and Ernest T.S. Walton | Cockcroft and Walton invented their eponymous linear positive-ion accelerator at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, in 1932.13 |
1952 | Felix Bloch | Bloch used a cyclotron at the Crocker Radiation Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley in his discovery of the magnetic moment of the neutron in 1940.14 |
1957 | Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang | Lee and Yang analyzed data on K mesons (θ and τ) from Bevatron experiments at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in 1955,15 which supported their idea in 1956 that parity is not conserved in weak interactions.16 |
1959 | Emilio G. Segrè and Owen Chamberlain | Segrè and Chamberlain discovered the antiproton in 1955 using the Bevatron at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.17 |
1960 | Donald A. Glaser | Glaser tested his first experimental six-inch bubble chamber in 1955 with high-energy protons produced by the Brookhaven Cosmotron.18 |
1961 | Robert Hofstadter | Hofstadter carried out electron-scattering experiments on carbon-12 and oxygen-16 in 1959 using the SLAC linac and thereby made discoveries on the structure of nucleons.19 |
1963 | Maria Goeppert Mayer | Goeppert Mayer analyzed experiments using neutron beams produced by the University of Chicago cyclotron in 1947 to measure the nuclear binding energies of krypton and xenon,20 which led to her discoveries on high magic numbers in 1948.21 |
1967 | Hans A. Bethe | Bethe analyzed nuclear reactions involving accelerated protons and other nuclei whereby he discovered in 1939 how energy is produced in stars.22 |
1968 | Luis W. Alvarez | Alvarez discovered a large number of resonance states using his fifteen-inch hydrogen bubble chamber and high-energy proton beams from the Bevatron at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory.23 |
1976 | Burton Richter and Samuel C.C. Ting | Richter discovered the J/Ψ particle in 1974 using the SPEAR collider at Stanford,24 and Ting discovered the J/Ψ particle independently in 1974 using the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron.25 |
1979 | Sheldon L. Glashow, Abdus Salam, and Steven Weinberg | Glashow, Salam, and Weinberg cited experiments on the bombardment of nuclei with neutrinos at CERN in 197326 as confirmation of their prediction of weak neutral currents.27 |
1980 | James W. Cronin and Val L. Fitch | Cronin and Fitch concluded in 1964 that CP (charge-parity) symmetry is violated in the decay of neutral K mesons based upon their experiments using the Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron.28 |
1981 | Kai M. Siegbahn | Siegbahn invented a weak-focusing principle for betatrons in 1944 with which he made significant improvements in high-resolution electron spectroscopy.29 |
1983 | William A. Fowler | Fowler collaborated on and analyzed accelerator-based experiments in 1958,30 which he used to support his hypothesis on stellar-fusion processes in 1957.31 |
1984 | Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer | Rubbia led a team of physicists who observed the intermediate vector bosons W and Z in 1983 using CERN’s proton–antiproton collider,32 and van der Meer developed much of the instrumentation needed for these experiments.33 |
1986 | Ernst Ruska | Ruska built the first electron microscope in 1933 based upon a magnetic optical system that provided large magnification.34 |
1988 | Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, and Jack Steinberger | Lederman, Schwartz, and Steinberger discovered the muon neutrino in 1962 using Brookhaven’s Alternating Gradient Synchrotron.35 |
1989 | Wolfgang Paul | Paul’s idea in the early 1950s of building ion traps grew out of accelerator physics.36 |
1990 | Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall, and Richard E. Taylor | Friedman, Kendall, and Taylor’s experiments in 1974 on deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons used the SLAC linac.37 |
1992 | Georges Charpak | Charpak’s development of multiwire proportional chambers in 1970 was made possible by accelerator-based testing at CERN.38 |
1995 | Martin L. Perl | Perl discovered the tau lepton in 1975 using Stanford’s SPEAR collider.39 |
2004 | David J. Gross, Frank Wilczek, and H. David Politzer | Gross, Wilczek, and Politzer discovered asymptotic freedom in the theory of strong interactions in 1973 based upon results from the SLAC linac on electron-proton scattering.40 |
2008 | Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa | Kobayashi and Maskawa’s theory of quark mixing in 1973 was confirmed by results from the KEKB accelerator at KEK (High Energy Accelerator Research Organization) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, and the PEP II (Positron Electron Project II) at SLAC,41 which showed that quark mixing in the six-quark model is the dominant source of broken symmetry.42 |
Appendix II. The years in which there were important developments in accelerator science
Year | Important Development in Accelerator Science |
|---|---|
1918 | Ernest Rutherford discovers artificial nuclear disintegration by bombarding nitrogen nuclei with RaC (83Bi214) alpha particles. |
1924 | Gustav Ising develops the concept of a linear particle accelerator, and four years later Rolf Wideröe builds the world’s first linac in an eighty-eight-centimeter glass tube in Aachen, Germany. |
1929 | Robert J. Van de Graaff invents his eponymous generator at Princeton University. In 1959 he also constructs the first tandem accelerator at Chalk River, Canada. |
1929 | Ernest O. Lawrence invents the cyclotron at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1930 his student M. Stanley Livingston builds a four-inch-diameter cyclotron. |
1932 | John D. Cockcroft and Ernest T.S. Walton invent their eponymous electrostatic accelerator at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, and use it to produce the first man-made nuclear reaction. |
1937 | The brothers Russell and Sigurd Varian invent the klystron, a high-frequency amplifier for generating microwaves, and William Hansen is instrumental in its development at Stanford University. In 1935 Oskar Heil and Agnesa Arsenjewa-Heil at the Cavendish Laboratory, but while on a trip to Italy, had proposed a similar device. |
1940 | Donald W. Kerst constructs the first betatron at the University of Illinois, an electron accelerator that Joseph Slepian and others had proposed in the 1920s. |
1943 | Marcus (Mark) Oliphant develops the concept for a new type of accelerator, which Edwin McMillan later named the synchrotron. |
1944 | Vladimir Veksler at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow, and later Edwin McMillan at the University of California at Berkeley independently discover the principle of phase stability, a cornerstone of modern accelerators, which is first demonstrated on a modified cyclotron at Berkeley in 1946. |
1946 | Frank Goward constructs the first electron synchrotron in Woolwich, England, which is followed by one built at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, where synchrotron radiation is first observed, thus opening up a new era of accelerator-based light sources. |
1946 | William Walkinshaw and his team in Malvern, England, build the first electron linac powered by a magnetron. William Hansen and his team at Stanford University independently build a similar electron linac a few months later. |
1947 | Luis Alvarez builds the first drift-tube linac for accelerating protons at the University of California at Berkeley. |
1952 | Ernest Courant, M. Stanley Livingston, and Hartland Snyder at Brookhaven National Laboratory discover the principle of strong focusing, which Nicholas Christofilos in Athens, Greece, had conceived independently in 1949 and had patented but did not publish. Strong focusing and phase stability form the foundation of all modern high-energy accelerators. |
1956 | The first Fixed-Field Alternating-Gradient accelerator is commissioned at the Midwestern Universities Research Association, based upon a concept that Tihiro Ohkawa, Andrei Kolomensky, and Keith Symon invented independently. In 1938 Llewellyn Thomas had conceived an earlier variation of it. |
1959 | The first two proton synchrotrons using strong focusing—the Proton Synchrotron at CERN and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven—are built. An electron synchrotron using strong focusing had been built at Cornell University in 1954. |
1961 | AdA (Anello di Accumulazione), the first electron–positron collider, is built at Frascati, Italy.43 It is followed by two electron–electron colliders, the Princeton-Stanford double-ring collider in the United States and the VEP-1 double-ring collider at Novosibirsk, Russia. |
1964 | Astron, the first induction linac that Nicholas Christofilos had proposed for nuclear fusion, is built at a branch of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, later renamed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. |
1966 | Gersh Budker invents electron-beam cooling at the Institute for Nuclear Physics in Akademgorodok, Russia. |
1968 | Simon van der Meer invents stochastic cooling for cooling antiproton beams. The proton–antiproton collisions studied at CERN lead to the discovery of the W and Z bosons in 1983. |
1969 | Vladimir Teplyakov and Ilya Kapchinskii invent the radio-frequency quadrupole linac at the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics in Moscow. |
1971 | Intersecting Storage Rings, the first large proton-proton collider, begins operation at CERN. |
1971 | John M.J. Madey invents and builds the first free-electron laser at Stanford University. |
1983 | The Tevatron, the first large accelerator using superconducting magnet technology, is commissioned at Fermilab. |
1989 | The Stanford Linear Collider, first proposed by Burton Richter, is built at SLAC. Maury Tigner had developed the linear-collider concept in 1965. |
1993 | Construction of the Superconducting Super Collider, a would-be largest accelerator in the world, begins in 1989. The project is cancelled by the U.S. Congress in 1993.44 |
1994 | The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, the first large accelerator using superconducting radio-frequency technology, is built at the facility now called the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. |
2005 | FLASH (Free-Electron LASer in Hamburg), the first Vacuum Ultraviolet and soft X-ray free-electron laser-user facility, is built at DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) in Hamburg, Germany. |
2008 | The Large Hadron Collider with a twenty-seven-kilometer circumference begins operation at CERN. |
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Haussecker, E.F., Chao, A.W. The Influence of Accelerator Science on Physics Research. Phys. Perspect. 13, 146–160 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-010-0049-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00016-010-0049-y
Keywords
- Owen Chamberlain
- John D. Cockcroft
- William A. Fowler
- Robert Hofstadter
- Gerardus ’t Hooft
- J. Hans D. Jensen
- Henry W. Kendall
- Ernest O. Lawrence
- Maria Goeppert Mayer
- Simon van der Meer
- Wolfgang Paul
- Martin L. Perl
- Burton Richter
- Carlo Rubbia
- Emilio G. Segrè
- Richard E. Taylor
- Samuel C.C. Ting
- Ernest T.S. Walton
- Nobel Prize for Physics
- accelerator science
- history of physics