Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
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Beam switchyard to experimental halls
News Highlights
  • A Bigger Chill
    Members of Jefferson Lab's Cryogenics Department are among the planet's best at what they do. Now they're lending their super-cool expertise to a project that's out of this world. They're helping NASA in testing its James Webb Space Telescope, the next generation of space-based technology that will replace the Hubble.
  • Nuclear Pairs
    Like children playing a game of tag, some protons and neutrons link up briefly inside the nucleus of the atom and then rapidly split apart. These pairings have now been quantified in the first simultaneous measurement of such pairings and their constituents. The result was published in Science Express on May 29.
  • Going Green
    About 6.5 acres of Jefferson Lab's 206-acre campus have been seeded with wildflowers. Now in full bloom near the lab's administration building and accelerator site, the flowers have delivered a triple benefit: enhanced aesthetics, improved environmental diversity and reduced maintenance costs.
  • Upgrade Testing
    Progress continues on JLab's 12 GeV Upgrade project. Leonard Page, a JLab technician, prepares the Horizontal Test Bed for accelerator research and development testing. Two 12 GeV-style accelerating cavities will be re-installed in the Test Bed to extend earlier R&D tests that confirmed the cavities meet specifications. The 12 GeV Upgrade project will double the energy of JLab's accelerator.
  • Portrait of a Gremlin
    A novel way of looking inside accelerator components has given scientists their first clear snapshot of a performance-killing defect. Researchers suspect that the tiny blob (about the width of a human hair) on this otherwise smooth surface is preventing the component being tested at Jefferson Lab from reaching its design specifications.
SCIENCE EDUCATION
As a world-class research facility, Jefferson Lab is a valued partner to the local, regional and national education community.
Switch Hitter - Electrons from Jefferson Lab's accelerator pass through the beam switchyard on their way to experiments in the experimental halls. The line on the left pipes electrons to Hall C, the middle leads to Hall B, and the right goes to Hall A. The red and blue magnets (shaped like stop signs) and the long, powder-blue magnets focus and steer the beams of electrons. Photo: Greg Adams.