Current particle and nuclear facilities | |
---|---|
LHC | Accelerates protons and heavy ions |
LEIR | Accelerates ions |
SPS | Accelerates protons and ions |
PSB | Accelerates protons |
PS | Accelerates protons or ions |
Linac 3 | Injects heavy ions into LEIR |
Linac4 | Accelerates ions |
AD | Decelerates antiprotons |
ELENA | Decelerates antiprotons |
ISOLDE | Produces radioactive ion beams |
MEDICIS | Produces isotopes for medical purposes |
The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a storage ring at the CERN laboratory near Geneva.[1] It was built from the Antiproton Collector (AC) to be a successor to the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) and started operation in the year 2000. Antiprotons are created by impinging a proton beam from the Proton Synchrotron on a metal target. The AD decelerates the resultant antiprotons to an energy of 5.3 MeV, which are then ejected to one of several connected experiments.
The major goals of experiments at AD are to spectroscopically observe the antihydrogen and to study the effects of gravity on antimatter. Though each experiment at AD has varied aims ranging from testing antimatter for cancer therapy to CPT symmetry and antigravity research.