Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility

Abstract

The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab) in Newport News, Virginia, USA, is one of ten national laboratories under the aegis of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The lab is managed and operated by Jefferson Science Associates (JSA). The primary facility at Jefferson Lab is the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). Jefferson Lab was created in 1984 as CEBAF and started operations for physics in 1995. The accelerator uses superconducting radio-frequency (srf) techniques to generate high-quality electron beams with high-intensity and well-controlled polarization. The technology has enabled ancillary facilities to be created, such as the lab's Free-Electron Laser (FEL). The CEBAF facility hosts an international user community of more than 1,200 physicists for a program of exploration and study of nuclei, hadronic matter, the strong interaction, and quantum chromodynamics. Additionally, the exceptional quality of the beams facilitates studies of the fundamental symmetries of nature. Presently, the facility is executing a project to double the energy of the CEBAF accelerator and to enhance and expand its experimental facilities.