Inside the Californian B-factory
5 May 1999
The world's first B-factory is about to start up at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in the US. The PEP-II Asymmetric B Factory consists of two particle storage rings, one on top of the other (as shown here), which will store and collide high-intensity beams of electrons and positrons (antielectrons). Each ring contains magnets to focus and steer the beams round in opposite directions, allowing them to collide at the heart of a detector called BaBar. In this image the higher energy electron ring is seen above the lower energy positron ring. The B-factory is designed to produce vast numbers of particles containing b-quarks - about 100 million a year. The decays of these quarks could hold clues about the domination of matter over antimatter in the Universe.
Credit: SLAC
Please contact person or institution named for information about permission for public or commercial use.