Fermilab doubles the action - and more!

11 April 2001

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The world's highest energy particle accelerator - the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the US - is in action once again, after a four-year upgrade. The Tevatron occupies a tunnel 6 km circumference, which is marked out on this aerial view of Fermilab by the further of the two circular service roads. In the machine, beams of protons and antiprotons circulate and collide head on. The Tevatron's particle beams were originally supplied by an older accelerator - the Main Ring - located in the same tunnel. But to increase the rate of collisions, the Main Ring has now been dismantled and replaced by a new machine, the Main Injector. This had been built in a completely new tunnel of a similar size, which is marked out by the nearer of the two circles. Now the Main Injector is operational, and collisions have begun again at Fermilab, the aim is to reach 20 times the previous rate.

Credit: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

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