Harmony in science: Superconductivity and high energy physics

Abstract

Thirty-one days after the disclosure of high field superconductivity in Nb 3 Sn, the bubble chamber group at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory began a program to apply this discovery to high energy physics. On that day in 1961 a very special relationship was born which, as subsequent events were to show, proved to be one of the most fruitful associations in modern science. Given the well-known high technology content and innovative approach to problem solving associated with high energy physics, it is hardly surprising that significant developments in applied superconductivity took place in accelerator laboratories. Particle physics requires a bewildering array of technologically sophisticated equipment: from the instant when particles are injected into the accelerator through the acceleration process, beam extraction, separation, and steering to the instant of collision and analysis of the interaction products, superconducting devices play a most important role. We examine each step in this process and not only describe how the latest advances in superconductivity have been applied but also discuss why these developments necessarily took place. It is remarkable that, in spite of considerable fiscal restraint, high energy physics is entering a period of major construction activity. Thus if history repeats itself we are about to witness a flood of innovations each intended to alleviate some problem brought on by increasingly expensive power and rising production costs, not to mention the constant clamor for higher accelerator energies and greater resolution of the detection equipment.