Energy Upgrade For Jefferson Lab

New components will double the energy of the electrons accelerated in this unique superconducting 7/8-mile racetrack.

To see the world around us, we use our eyes. To study the stars above and human cells within, we rely on telescopes and microscopes. To wrestle with the mysteries of the strong force, we need the power of the proposed 12 billion electron volt (12 GeV) Jefferson Lab electron accelerator.

Operating at the frontier of current technology, Jefferson Lab is a key facility for investigating confinement and the strong force. Already, its accelerator has revealed much about how quarks and glue make up matter.

More mysteries remain. Doubling the energy of Jefferson Lab's accelerated electron beam to 12 GeV will enable us to search systematically for glue-rich particles. Additionally, the energy upgrade will allow in-depth study of the proton's mysteries, the balance of forces within nuclei, and quark matter in the first second of the universe.