Bringing BaBar together
2 May 1999
The BaBar detector, at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in the US, has been built to investigate particles that contain b-quarks, and in particular a puzzling difference between matter and antimatter that goes under the name of CP violation. Like many modern detectors in particle physics experiments, BaBar consists of a series of concentric layers that surround the pipe in which particles beams collide head-on - in this case in the PEPII facility at SLAC. This image was taken in August 1998, nine months before the start of data taking. It shows the "forward end" - so-called because the particles produced in the collisions tend to come in this direction. (It corresponds to the back of the schematic view). The photograph, which gives an impression of the scale and compexity of BaBar, was taken just after the drift chamber (used to track charged particles) had been installed at the centre of the assembly. (See here for a labelled view of the forward end of BaBar).
Credit: BaBar / Drift Chamber Project
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