CERN

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire), the world's largest particle physics laboratory, situated on the border between France and Switzerland, just west of Geneva. It is also known for being the birthplace of the World Wide Web. The convention establishing it was signed on September 29, 1954. From the original 12 signatories of the CERN convention, membership has grown to the present 20 Member States.

Decommissioned accelerators

• The original linear accelerator (Linac1).
• The 600 MeV Synchro-Cyclotron (SC) which started operation in 1957 and was shut down in 1991.
• The Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR), an early collider built in 1966
• LEP, an electron-positron collider which started operating in 1989.
• Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR), commissioned in 1982. This assembled the first pieces of true antimatter, in 1995, consisting of nine atoms of antihydrogen. It was closed in 1996, and superseded by the Antiproton Decelerator.

As the SPS and the LEP tunnels cross the Franco-Swiss border, there are several experimental areas on the French side in addition to the main site which is in Switzerland for legal purposes (although since 1965 it actually occupies land on both sides of the border).

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There is also the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), which reduces the speed of antiprotons (which are created travelling at nearly the speed of light) for research into antimatter.

Related Topics:
Antiproton Decelerator - Antimatter

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