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Symon, K.R.

Paper Title Page
WOPA001 Wilson Prize Talk
 
  • K.R. Symon
    UW-Madison/PD, Madison, Wisconsin
 
  The formula for the center-of-mass energy as a function of the energy of the incident particle in a collision with a stationary target shows that the required beam energy is greatly reduced if we collide incident and target particles with equal and opposite momenta. Unfortunately the cross sections for collisions of interest are so small that until the middle 1900's it was not possible to achieve colliding beams of sufficient intensities to reach needed collision rates. In 1954 fixed field alternating gradient (FFAG) accelerators were invented. With a fixed magnetic guide field, it was possible to consider stacking successively injected beams to achieve very high intensity circulating beams. Calculations using Liouville's theorem showed that colliding beam experiments were now practical. Circulating electron beams over 10 amperes were achieved in a model accelerator built by the Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA). With the invention of storage rings, a much cheaper accelerator configuration than FFAG, and utilizing beam stacking, colliding beams are now utilized to study high energy interactions.