This collection contains reports and publications produced and studied by the Working Group on Pension Policy.
Sans titreThese documents represent the filing system of Carlo Rubbia during his period as Director-General of CERN. They cover all aspects of CERN's activities, and include:
- Correspondence
- Meetings of Directorate, Management Board, etc,
- Official visits
- Personnel matters
- Inaugurations of LEP and Microcosm
- Seminars, Conferences, Committees of LHC, ECFA, ICFA, SPSC…
These documents represent the filing system of Christopher Llewellyn Smith during his period as Director-General of CERN. They cover all aspects of CERN's activities, and include: relations with the Delegations relations with Administrative Sector, Accelerator and Technology Sector, and Computing and Research Sector minutes of Directorate, Management Board meetings, etc... minutes of scientific committees and other committees meetings conferences correspondence documents concerning official visits personnel matters concerning appeals, early retirements, policy, recruitment... * DG working files
Sans titreThis collection contains files of Giorgio Brianti during the period he was part of the Directorate. It includes : minutes, reports, notes correspondence chronofiles files concerning relations with non Member-States Administration and general LHC project * files about superconductivity
Sans titreThis collection covers Juan-Antonio Rubio’s period at CERN between 1987 to 2004. It contains files concerning the European Laboratory for the Energy Amplifer (LAESA), European Union project for the TARC Experiment, L3 experiment, Tau-charm factory project and relations with the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC).
Sans titreThese documents represent the filing system of Herwig F. Schopper during the period he was Director-General of CERN. They cover all aspects of CERN's activities and include :
- Correspondence
- Meetings of the Directorate, Management Board,...
- Staff, finance and divisional management
- External relations (Member States, International and European Organisations, High Energy Physics Laboratories,...)
- Visits, ceremonies, invitations
- LEP management board, experiments, computing,...
- Technical and scientific matters (committees, experiments,... : PS, ISR, SPS)
- Conferences, CERN school
- Schopper's personal files
CERN equipment discussed in this collection:
The Synchro-Cyclotron (SC) was the first accelerator built at CERN. It was commissioned successfully in 1957 with its first proton beam. In 1967, an Isotope Separator On Line DEtector (ISOLDE) was built : it was a facility for nuclear chemistry, placed on-line with the extracted proton beam. In 1974, it was replaced by ISOLDE 2. SC closed in 1990.
SC was conceived as an intermediate device until the Proton Synchrotron (PS) was operational in 1959. With this proton accelerator, a completely new energy range would be opened up, European scientists would work under conditions comparable to those in the USA and CERN would become an important laboratory in the field of the high energy physics. The PS was equipped with bubble chambers (Gargamelle, BEBC,...), the Omega Spectrometer in 1972, the LEAR (Low Energy Antiproton Ring) in 1982, the detector European Hybrid System (EHS) the same year...
The Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR), the third of the principal CERN accelerators, worked with the PS. When the ISR began to operate in 1971, it was the only proton storage ring machine in the world. It provided head-on collisions between protons in two counter-rotating beams.The two identical rings, 300m in diameter, were interlaced and intersected at 8 points where the proton beams collided head on, with an impact equivalent to that made with a normal type of accelerator of a much higher energy. In 1979 CERN capitalized on its ISR investment by deciding to convert its new SPS into the world's first proton-antiproton collider.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) (400 GeV), commissioned in 1976, was CERN's fourth accelerator. It is a circular accelerator, 7 km in circumference, buried underground. Originally built to accelerate protons, it since operated as a proton-antiproton collider, a heavy-ion accelerator and an electron/positron injector for the LEP.
The Large Electron Positron (LEP) was the largest particle collider in the world (27 km in circumference) and began operation in the summer of 1989 circulating electrons and positrons (antielectrons) in opposite directions at almost the speed of light. LEP is equipped with 4 detectors : OPAL (Omni-Purpose Apparatus for LEP), DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton Photon and Hadron Identification), ALEPH (Apparatus for LEP pHysics) and L3 (which drew its name from being the subject of the third letter of intent for a LEP experiment).
Since the mid-1980s, a new round of discussions has been taking place with the aim of defining various options for the post-LEP era. In December 1994 CERN's governing body, Council, officially approved the construction of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC is an accelerator which brings protons and ions into head-on collisions at higher energies than ever achieved before. This will allow scientists to penetrate still further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the early universe, just after the "Big Bang".
CERN collaborations discussed in this collection
In 1954, CERN was created with 12 founding Member States : Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia left in 1961. Austria and Spain joined in 1959 and 1961 respectively - Spain left in 1969 and rejoined in 1983. Member States provide financial contributions in proportion to their Net National Incomes.
High energy physics laboratories
ANL : Argonne National Laboratory is one of the U.S. Department of Energy's largest research centers, chartered in 1946. Operated by the University of Chicago, it was a part of the World War Two Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. After the war, Argonne was given the mission of developing nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes. Over the years, Argonne's research expanded to include many other areas of science, engineering and technology : basic science, scientific facilities, energy resources and environmental management.
BNL : established in 1947, Brookhaven National Laboratory is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Brookhaven Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Its role for the DOE is to produce excellent science and advanced technology with the cooperation, support, and appropriate involvement of its scientific and local communities.
DESY : Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron is a national center of basic physics research, located in Hamburg and Zeuthen. The particle physics research started in 1965.
Fermilab : installed in Batavia, Illinois (U.S), it is the largest high-energy physics laboratory in the United States, and second in the world only to CERN. Originally named the National Accelerator Laboratory, it was commissioned by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1967. Fermilab is dedicated to research in particle physics, with the goal of understanding the fundamental nature of matter, space, and time. It operates the Tevatron, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator and collider.
GSF : Gesellschaft für Stralhenforschung, created in 1960s, is a member of the Hermann von Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. It is located at Neuherberg, in Germany. Its research aims to maintain health in humans and a healthy environment.
GSI : Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung mbH is a heavy ion research center founded by the Federal Government of Germany and the state of Hesse in 1970 at Darmstadt in Germany. The laboratory performs basic and applied research in physics and related natural science disciplines using a heavy ion accelerator facility.
Jülich : this Research Centr in Germany is one of the largest research institutions in Europe. Scientists from many different disciplines including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering work together.
ILL : Institut Laue-Langevin, based in Grenoble, France, is an international research centre and world leader in neutron science and technology. Founded in 1967 on the initiative of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, its aim was to create an intense source of neutrons entirely dedicated to civil fundamental research. Today, it operates the most intense neutron source in the world.
KEK : High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation was founded in 1971 in Ibaraki (Japan) for research in particle and nuclear physics and material science using advanced accelerators and related facilities.
LAMPF : Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility was a linear accelerator built in 1968 in the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), a pulsed-spallation neutron source located at Los Alamos National Laboratory (U.S).
LBL : Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was founded in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron. Located above the University of California at Berkeley (U.S.), it was known as a mecca of particle physics and later broadened its focus.
MIT : Massachusetts Institute of Technology (U.S.) opened in 1870. It is a coeducational, privately endowed research university, dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship.
MPI : Max-Planck Instituts are national or European 'centres of excellence' in basic research. The Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysikinm Heidelberg performs basic research on two broad fields in experimental and theoretical physics. On one hand this concerns the physics of complex many-particle systems as they occur in nuclear, atomic and molecular physics and applications in atmosheric physics, on the other hand research in the region of particle physics and astro particle physics.
SIN : Since 1974, the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research, located in Villigen, had concentrated on experiments in core and elementary particle physics on its own accelerators. In 1988, it became the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) after merging with the Swiss Federal Institut for Reactor Research (EIR).
SLAC : Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is one of the world is leading research laboratories. Established in 1962, it is located at Stanford University (U.S.). Its mission is to design, construct and operate state-of-the-art electron accelerators and related experimental facilities for use in high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation research.
TRIUMF : TRI-University Meson Facility, established in 1968, is Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. Located on the campus of the University of British Columbia with the world's largest cyclotron, it works towards a clearer understanding of the subatomic particles and fundamental forces that determine every aspect of the universe. It is a member of the international subatomic physics community.
European Organisations
ECFA : European Committee for Future Accelerators was set up at the beginning of 1963 on the initiative of Prof. Weisskopf, then Director-General of CERN and of Prof. Powell, Chairman of the CERN Scientific Policy Committee. It has several aims: to establish long-range planning of European high-energy facilities adequate for the conduct of a valid high-energy research programme by the community of physicists in the participating countries, to find an equilibrium between the roles of international and national laboratories and university institutes in this research, to create close relations between research and education in high-energy physics and other fields and to foster adequate conditions for research and a just and equitable sharing of facilities between physicists as conducive to a successful collaborative effort. ECFA is advisory to CERN Management, CERN Council and its Committees, and to other organizations, national or international. Traditionally, physicists from the countries which were Members of CERN in 1966 participate in ECFA. CERN is also considered as a "country".
EPS : European Physical Society provides an international forum for physicists and acts as a federation of national physical societies. Founded in 1968, the EPS worked to promote the interests of physics in Europe. Its activities revolve around the themes of promoting excellent physics research, supplying a European view on important questions relating to physics, and acting as a catalyst bringing together physicists in different countries, and a liaison between physicists working in different fields.
ESF : European Science Foundation is an association established in 1974. It has coordinated a wide range of pan-European scientific initiatives. Its aim is to act as a catalyst for the development of science by bringing together leading scientists and research funding agencies to debate, plan and implement pan-European initiatives.
ESO : European Southern Observatory was created in 1962 to "establish and operate an astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, equipped with powerful instruments, with the aim of furthering and organising collaboration in astronomy". It operates astronomical observatories in Chile and has its headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany.
CODEST : COmité de Développement Européen de la Science et de la Technologie
RARE : Reseaux Associes pour le Recherche Europeenne is an association of national and international networks and users founded in 1986.
International Organisations
ICFA : International Committee for Future Accelerators was created in 1976 by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) to facilitate international collaboration in the construction and use of accelerators for high energy physics.
ICTP : International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste was founded in 1964 by Abdus Salam. It operates under the aegis of two United Nations Agencies: UNESCO and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and by agreement with the Government of Italy which provides the major part of the Centre's funding. One of the main aims of the ICTP is to foster the growth of advanced studies and research in the developing countries.
Sans titreThe collection "Directors of Research" contains files concerning construction, equipment and experiments on the SC machine (Synchro-Cyclotron), the PS machine (Proton Synchrotron), the SPS machine (Super Proton Synchrotron), the LEP machine (Large Electron Positron) and the LHC machine (Large Hadron Collider). Some other files talk about computing & networks management and scientific & technical cooperation.
The Synchro-Cyclotron
The 600 MeV synchro-cyclotron was the first accelerator built at CERN. Originally, it was conceived as an intermediate device until the PS was operational and to train European physicists on big accelerators. It was commissioned successfully in 1957, with its first proton beam : this date can be regarded as the starting point of the active scientific life of the organisation. It was used for experiments stretching from particle physics to nuclear physics and chemistry, and a large number of teams performed their first experiments at CERN. Rapidly, the SC machine established itself as a research tool in its own right with an important particle physics and nuclear structure programme using muons and pions. In parallel, it supported ISOLDE, commissioned in 1967, a facility in which an isotope separator for studying radio-active elements was placed on-line with the extracted proton beam of the machine. Particle physics experiments constituted the first real scientific successes for CERN. The SC machine was closed in 1990.
The Proton Synchrotron
The 28 GeV proton synchrotron was a proton accelerator that came into operation in 1959 at CERN. It was a gigantic machine for that time. With it, a completely new energy range would be opened up and CERN was to become the place where European high energy physics would be done in the years to come. European scientists would work under conditions comparable to those in the United States. Space in the North and South experimental halls were equipped with six bubble chambers (hydrogen) and the East hall was commissioned in 1963 to accommodate all this equipment and a programme of electronics experiments.
In 1970, a new bubble chamber (heavy liquids), called Gargamelle, was commissioned at CERN. Conceived by Lagarrigue in 1964, its construction started under the general supervision of CEA Saclay at the end of 1965. It was installed in the South-East Area. In 1973, it made one of CERN's major physics discoveries, the "neutral current" a new kind of particle interaction. Filled with 18 tons of heavy liquid (neon or propane), it recorded the rare interactions of elusive particles called neutrinos. In 1976, CERN decided to move Gargamelle to the West Area for experiments with the SPS machine. After some repairs, the bubble chamber was again operational in September 1977. Gargamelle was stopped in 1979 because of a heavy programme of repairs.
Another major device was initiated by CERN in 1968 : the Omega spectrometer. It was completely separate from the accelerator which provides it with beams of particles. It combined a superconducting magnet with a variety of electronic detectors (spark chambers, Cerenkov counters,...). Initially built to work with the PS machine, it produced its first results in 1972. Then, it became one of the principle experimental facilities of the SPS machine.
Mirabelle is a French bubble chamber installed in the Institute of High Energy near Serpukhov (USSR). In 1970, CERN decided on the construction of the fast ejection system and a particle separator to be used with the PS machine of this Institute ; in exchange, CERN could propose and execute experiments with the French bubble chamber. This equipment was commissioned in 1972. Kaons and antiprotons could be separated to provide beams with a high level of purity for experiments in Mirabelle
In 1973, BEBC (Big European Bubble Chamber) (hydrogen) was commissioned in the West hall. It used very new technologies, especially for the magnet (superconductivity). It was filled with 30 cubic meters of liquefied gas, and recorded the interactions of elementary particles. The sensitivity of the liquid gas was controlled by a huge piston. Each time the piston expanded, a burst of particles was photographed. The BEBC produced 3 000 kilometers of film. As from 1977, BEBC carried out experiments with the SPS machine (WA experiments).
In 1980, in view of the availability of beams of antiprotons, CERN approved the construction of LEAR (Low Energy Antiproton Ring). This new device was ready in 1982, in the South hall of the PS machine. This ring was used to provide a stable antiproton stream. It received antiprotons issued from the antiproton accumulator and decelerated in the PS machine. The successful completion of this project opened a new field at CERN to a different range of experiments and experimenters.
The same year, the EHS (European Hybrid System) was ready. Included in the SPS programme, it was a particle detector which aimed to combine the technologies of bubble chambers and spectrometers in such a way as to maximize the advantages of each technique and minimize their inconveniences. Essentially it consists of a rapid cycling bubble chamber as the target and detector and a series of particle detectors.
The Super Proton Synchrotron
1976 is the date of the start of operation of the fourth accelerator of CERN. The 400 GeV super proton synchrotron is a circular accelerator, 7 km in circumference, buried underground. It was built originally to accelerate protons - and still does so - but it has since operated as a proton-antiproton collider, a heavy-ion accelerator, and an electron/positron injector for LEP. As a proton-antiproton collider in the 1980s, it provided CERN with one of its greatest moments - the first observations of the W and Z particles, the carriers of the weak force.
Various experiments are carried out using the SPS. The NA experiments correspond to detectors installed in the North Area, in Prevessin (the French site of CERN). The WA experiments (West Area) are carried out on the site of Meyrin. Emulsion Experiments (EMU) were associated with some of the NA or WA experiments. In June 1978, a project for operation with colliding beams of protons and antiprotons was approved : the ppbar Committee was responsible for the design of the experimental area to locate the future UA experiments in the long straight-section 5 in the SPS tunnel.
The Large Electron Positron Collider
In 1985, the Kendrew committee produced a report on the future of British participation at CERN. It suggested that Britain should reduce its contribution to CERN. In 1986, a committee of eminent Europeans nominated the Abragam Committee (external scientists and industrialists) to investigate CERN to prepare the administrative modernisation of the Organisation and the staff policy. Another workgroup, presided over by Carlo Rubbia, studied the scientific and technological future of the Laboratory. These two committees validated the program of research and plans about the future of CERN, particularly for the LEP.
When the LEP machine began operation in the summer of 1989. It was the largest particle collider in the world. In a ring 27 km in circumference, buried about 100 m underground, bunches of electrons and positrons (antielectrons) race round in opposite directions as they are accelerated to almost the speed of light.
OPAL and DELPHI were the two first detectors to be approved by CERN in 1982 for the future LEP; then came ALEPH and L3, which had been approved by the CERN in 1982 for the future LEP.
OPAL (Omni-Purpose Apparatus for LEP) was a classic polyvalent detector. Commissioned in 1989, it used tested detector techniques.
DELPHI (DEtector with Lepton Photon and Hadron Identification), ready in 1989-1990, was a special detector used to identity leptons, photons and hadrons. It incorporates a technology which had never been used on a large scale.
ALEPH (Apparatus for LEP pHysics) was a solid-state microstrip detector and the simplest of the detectors : it had a minimum of components and emphasized performance and reliability. It was installed closest to the collision region to give information on very short-lived particles.
L3 (which drew its name from being the subject of the third letter of intent for a LEP experiment) was the largest of the detectors and was distinguished by having its magnet on the outside of the detector volume. It aimed for great accuracy in many of its measurements on the particles emerging from the collisions.
The LAA project (Lepton Asymmetry Analyser) was approved by CERN in 1986. This compact fast tracking detector, using very small diameter scintillating optical fibres with a novel electro-optical readout, aimed the development of new detection techniques in future hadron colliders.
In 1989, a first CERN / ESA (European Space Agency) workshop was proposal with the Olympus programme. It was an experimental communications satellite, a project on physics data distribution by satellite. In 1990, the satellite project was named Cheops.
Large Hadron Collider
In December 1994, the CERN Council officially approved the construction of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - a technologically challenging superconducting ring, which will be installed in the existing LEP tunnel - to provide proton-proton collisions at energies 10 times greater than any previous machine. In keeping with CERN's cost-effective strategy of building on previous investments, it is designed to share the 27-kilometre LEP tunnel, and be fed by existing particle sources and pre-accelerators. The LHC will use the most advanced superconducting magnet and accelerator technologies ever employed.
ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is an experiment for recording proton-antiproton collisions at the LHC. The detector design has been optimized to cover the largest possible range of LHC physics. Its goal is to explore the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces that shape our universe. Its is the largest collaborative effort ever attempted in the physical sciences (150 participating institutions in 2000).
CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) is, with ATLAS, the largest polyvalent detector of the LHC. It will identify and measure muons in the outer layers of the detector, which requires a strong magnetic field inside the detector.
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) became the third collaboration approved the same year, but with different goals : the LHC will accelerate not only protons, but also the high energy beams of lead-ions currently in use by SPS experiments. It is this capacity which ALICE is designed to exploit as the LHC's only dedicated heavy-ion experiment.
The LHCb (Large hadron Collider beauty) is the fourth detector, designed to catch low angle particles. Its key elements will be its measurement of charged particle tracks, and its ability to identify different kinds of particles. Totem is an experiment dedicated to the measurement of total cross section, elastic scattering and diffractive processes at the LHC.
Computing & networks management
The Data Handling Division of CERN (DD) provides off-line programming support for a number of experiments thanks to a Computer Centre with several central computing services like IBM and DEC and specialized computing services. This support is organized by the Computer Time Allocation Group (Cocotime). In 1990, Data Handling Division became Computing and Networks Division (CN) until 1998, when his name changed again to Information Technology Division (IT).
Scientific and technical cooperations
In 1989, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) proposed to build a Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in order to maintain its leadership position in the scientific field of high energy physics. It was installed in Dallas. In 1991, CERN and SSC Laboratory decided to define areas of mutual scientific and technical cooperation. Finally the USA abandoned the SSC.
In 1993, four universities (Grenoble (2), Karlsruhe and Darmstadt) proposed the creation of a European Scientific Institute, installed in Archamps to profit from the proximity of physicists and accelerator technologies of CERN. The CERN Accelerator School agreed to help in forming the programme of lectures and selecting the CERN lecturers.