Electron Accelerator Begins Fundamental Operations

Construction is now under way on the final stages of the Cambridge Electron Accelerator, M. Stanley Livingston, its director, said yesterday.

Although the synchrotron, or electron accelerator, has been in operation since September, several secondary projects remain to be finished.

At present the group is expanding the length, or "arc" of the building which houses the apparatus. The increased dimensions will better accomodate the study of beams of particles coming from the atom smasher, commented Livingston.

Another new part of the center will contain a division for the study of cyrogenics, or low temperature physics. Here the CEA plans to build equipment for manfacturing liquid hydrogen, required for the synchrotron's operation.

Near the present accelerator will be a "cooling tower" for lowering the temperature of water circulated through the magnets of the synchrotron to dissipate its power. This process will require 8,000 kilowatts of electricity.

The project's initial construction began in April, 1958, with work on the machine itself and the superstructure of the office building. Since then, more laboratory facilities and offices for scientists and technical workers have been added.

Harvard, MIT, and the Atomic Energy Commission planned the research center for a twofold purpose. First, they will use the apparatus to produce strange particles--short-lived and unstable packets of energy such as hyperons, anti-protons, and anti-neutrons.

The travelling particle receives its energy in a series of electrical "kicks," which increase its speed until it accumulates a total of six billion electron volts.

Secondly, the device will impart high energy to electrons so their scattering may be observed. When completed, it will be the only machine of its kind enabling study of the laws of nuclear forces through the scattering of such high energy electrons.