Japan's atom smasher achieves its 'first turns', Indians involved in project!

Japan's SuperKEKB accelerator succeeded in circulating and storing a positron beam in the positron ring.

Photo credit: James Fast/PNNL

Tokyo: Japan's SuperKEKB, one of the world's top particle accelerators, has achieved its 'first turns' - circulating beams of particles for the first time - and started test operations.

On February 10, 2016, the SuperKEKB succeeded in circulating and storing a positron beam in the positron ring, and on February 26, it succeeded in circulating and storing an electron beam in the electron ring as well, said a press release.

The researchers hope it will provide a view that will give physicists access to a record rate of particle collisions in a tiny volume in space.

The accelerator is designed to deliver 40 times more collisions between particles per second than its predecessor, the KEKB.

The Belle II experiment at the SuperKEKB accelerator aims to solve this great mystery of particle physics. An international team of more than 600 scientists and engineers from 23 countries in Asia, Europe and North America are involved in designing the Belle II detector.

Weighing about 1,400 tons and approximately 26 feet high, wide and deep, the Belle II detector will catch the action when positrons and electrons collide in the SuperKEKB accelerator.

Eight Indian academic institutions, including four IITs, have contributed to Belle II project.

SuperKEKB is the first new "atom-smasher" since the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator - located at CERN laboratory in Switzerland, added the press release.

Studying the particles produced in these collisions will give scientists and physicists a clearer view of the fundamental building blocks of the universe and provide new opportunities to explore physics that goes beyond today's standard model of particle physics.