Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Zero Gradient Synchrotron

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The Zero Gradient Sychrotron (ZGS), was a weak focussing 12.5 GeV proton accelerator that operated at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois from 1964 to 1979.

It enabled pioneering experiments in particle physics, in the areas of

  • quark model tests;
  • neutrino physics (observation of neutrino interaction in its 12ft hydrogen bubble chamber for the first time in 1970);
  • spin physics of hadrons (utilizing a polarized accelerated proton beam in the GeV range for the first time); and
  • Kaon decays.

    • Other noteworthy features of the ZGS program were the large number of university-based users and the pioneering development of large superconducting magnets for bubble chambers and beam transport.

    The hardware and building of the ZGS were ultimately inherited by a spallation neutron source program, the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS).

    References

    Zero Gradient Synchrotron Wikipedia
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