Moscow’s Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of the commissioning of its U10 proton synchrotron.
Originally a 7 GeV machine, the proton synchrotron was constructed at the institute (ITEP) as a prototype for the 70 GeV Protvino machine – then the most powerful in the world – which was commissioned in 1967.
The ITEP machine was, along with the CERN Proton Synchrotron and Brookhaven’s Alternating Gradient Synchrotron – one of the first three synchrotrons constructed using the alternating gradient focusing principle. In 1973 its output energy was upgraded to 10 GeV. In 1980 the maximum intensity – 1.5 x 1012 protons per pulse – was reached.
The ITEP U10 accelerator is used for experimental physics, proton therapy, material irradiation, and testing fast electronics and new detectors.
The ITEP proton synchrotron contributed greatly to particle and relativistic nuclear physics. Experiments were performed with different bubble chambers, including the world’s largest helium and xenon chambers, and magnet spectrometers with wire chambers.
Many important results have been obtained on light meson spectroscopy and CP-violation parameters in neutral kaon decay, and on non-strange baryon spectroscopy via precise measurements of pion-nucleon elastic scattering on unpolarized and polarized targets. A comprehensive study of few nucleon systems has been made using beams of light nuclei and in pion-deuteron interactions.
The ITEP TWAC TeraWatt Accumulator Project takes the U10 ring into a new era. Complementing the proton programme, it will be used as a heavy-ion accumulator for high-energy density experiments. This work should begin this year.
