What is a synchrophasotron and what does it look like? What is a synchrophasotron? Military use

It took UK parliamentarians only 15 minutes to decide on a government investment of £1 billion in the construction of a synchrophasotron. After that, they heatedly discussed the cost of coffee for one hour, no less, in the parliamentary buffet. And so they decided: they reduced the price by 15%.

It would seem that the tasks are not comparable in complexity at all, and everything, logically, should have happened exactly the opposite. An hour for science, 15 minutes for coffee. But no! As it turned out later, the majority of respectable politicians quickly gave their innermost “for”, having absolutely no idea what a “synchrophasotron” is.

Let us, dear reader, together with you fill this knowledge gap and not be like the scientific short-sightedness of some comrades.

What is a synchrophasotron?

Synchrophasotron is an electronic installation for scientific research - a cyclic accelerator of elementary particles (neutrons, protons, electrons, etc.). It has the shape of a huge ring, weighing more than 36 thousand tons. Its ultra-powerful magnets and accelerating tubes provide microscopic particles with colossal energy of directed motion. In the depths of the phasotron resonator, at a depth of 14.5 meters, truly fantastic transformations occur at the physical level: for example, a tiny proton receives 20 million electron volts, and a heavy ion receives 5 million eV. And this is only a modest fraction of all the possibilities!

It is thanks to the unique properties of the cyclic accelerator that scientists were able to learn the most intimate secrets of the universe: to study the structure of negligible particles and the physical and chemical processes occurring inside their shells; observe the synthesis reaction with your own eyes; discover the nature of hitherto unknown microscopic objects.

Phazotron marked a new era of scientific research - a territory of research where the microscope was powerless, which even innovative science fiction writers spoke with great caution (their insightful creative flight could not predict the discoveries made!).

History of the synchrophasotron

Initially, accelerators were linear, that is, they did not have a cyclic structure. But soon physicists had to abandon them. The requirements for energy levels increased - more was needed. But the linear design could not cope: theoretical calculations showed that for these values, it must be of incredible length.

In 1929 American E. Lawrence makes attempts to solve this problem and invents a cyclotron, the prototype of the modern phasotron. The tests are going well. Ten years later, in 1939. Lawrence receives the Nobel Prize.
In 1938 In the USSR, the talented physicist V.I. Veksler began to actively engage in the issue of creating and improving accelerators. In February 1944 he comes up with a revolutionary idea on how to overcome the energy barrier. Wexler calls his method “autophasing.” Exactly a year later, the same technology was discovered completely independently by E. Macmillan, a scientist from the USA.
In 1949 in the Soviet Union under the leadership of V.I. Veksler and S.I. Vavilov, a large-scale scientific project is being developed - the creation of a synchrophasotron with a power of 10 billion electron volts. For 8 years, at the Institute of Nuclear Research in the city of Dubno in Ukraine, a group of theoretical physicists, designers and engineers painstakingly worked on the installation. That’s why it is also called the Dubna Synchrophasotron.

The synchrophasotron was put into operation in March 1957, six months before the flight into space of the first artificial Earth satellite.

What research is being carried out at the synchrophasotron?

Wechsler's resonant cyclic accelerator gave rise to a galaxy of outstanding discoveries in many aspects of fundamental physics and, in particular, in some controversial and little-studied problems of Einstein's theory of relativity:

behavior of the quark structure of nuclei during interaction;
the formation of cumulative particles as a result of reactions involving nuclei;
studying the properties of accelerated deuterons;
interaction of heavy ions with targets (testing the resistance of microcircuits);
recycling of Uranium-238.

The results obtained in these areas are successfully used in the construction of spaceships, the design of nuclear power plants, the development of robotics and equipment for working in extreme conditions. But the most amazing thing is that a series of studies carried out at the synchrophasotron are bringing scientists ever closer to solving the great mystery of the origin of the Universe.

This is the elusively familiar word “synchrophasotron”! Remind me how it got into the ears of the common man in the Soviet Union? There was some movie or a popular song, I remember exactly what it was! Or was it simply an analogue of an unpronounceable word?

Now let’s remember what it is and how it was created...

In 1957, the Soviet Union made a revolutionary scientific breakthrough in two directions at once: in October the first artificial Earth satellite was launched, and a few months earlier, in March, the legendary synchrophasotron, a giant installation for studying the microworld, began operating in Dubna. These two events shocked the whole world, and the words “satellite” and “synchrophasotron” became firmly established in our lives.

The synchrophasotron is a type of charged particle accelerator. The particles in them are accelerated to high speeds and, consequently, to high energies. Based on the results of their collisions with other atomic particles, the structure and properties of matter are judged. The probability of collisions is determined by the intensity of the accelerated particle beam, that is, the number of particles in it, therefore intensity, along with energy, is an important parameter of the accelerator.

Accelerators reach enormous sizes, and it is no coincidence that the writer Vladimir Kartsev called them pyramids of the nuclear age, by which descendants will judge the level of our technology.

Before accelerators were built, the only source of high-energy particles was cosmic rays. These are mainly protons with an energy of the order of several GeV, freely coming from space, and secondary particles arising from their interaction with the atmosphere. But the flow of cosmic rays is chaotic and has low intensity, so over time, special installations began to be created for laboratory research - accelerators with controlled beams of high-energy and higher-intensity particles.

The operation of all accelerators is based on a well-known fact: a charged particle is accelerated by an electric field. However, it is impossible to obtain particles of very high energy by accelerating them only once between two electrodes, since this would require applying a huge voltage to them, which is technically impossible. Therefore, high-energy particles are obtained by repeatedly passing them between electrodes.

Accelerators in which a particle passes through successively located accelerating gaps are called linear. The development of accelerators began with them, but the requirement to increase the particle energy led to almost unrealistically long installation lengths.

In 1929, the American scientist E. Lawrence proposed the design of an accelerator in which a particle moves in a spiral, repeatedly passing the same gap between two electrodes. The trajectory of the particle is bent and twisted by a uniform magnetic field directed perpendicular to the orbital plane. The accelerator was called a cyclotron. In 1930-1931, Lawrence and his colleagues built the first cyclotron at the University of California (USA). For this invention he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1939.

In a cyclotron, a uniform magnetic field is created by a large electromagnet, and an electric field is generated between two D-shaped hollow electrodes (hence their name, “dees”). An alternating voltage is applied to the electrodes, which changes polarity every time the particle makes a half revolution. Due to this, the electric field always accelerates the particles. This idea could not be realized if particles with different energies had different periods of revolution. But, fortunately, although the speed increases with increasing energy, the period of revolution remains constant, since the diameter of the trajectory increases in the same ratio. It is this property of the cyclotron that allows the use of a constant frequency of the electric field for acceleration.

Soon, cyclotrons began to be created in other research laboratories.

Synchrophasotron building in the 1950s

The need to create a serious accelerator base in the Soviet Union was announced at the government level in March 1938. A group of researchers from the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology (LPTI), led by Academician A.F. Ioffe turned to the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR V.M. Molotov with a letter in which it was proposed to create a technical basis for research in the field of the structure of the atomic nucleus. Questions about the structure of the atomic nucleus became one of the central problems of natural science, and the Soviet Union lagged significantly behind in solving them. So, if America had at least five cyclotrons, then the Soviet Union had none (the only cyclotron of the Radium Institute of the Academy of Sciences (RIAN), launched in 1937, practically did not work due to design defects). The appeal to Molotov contained a request to create conditions for the completion of the construction of the LPTI cyclotron by January 1, 1939. Work on its creation, which began in 1937, was suspended due to departmental inconsistencies and the cessation of funding.

Indeed, at the time the letter was written, there was a clear misunderstanding in government circles of the country about the relevance of research in the field of atomic physics. According to the memoirs of M.G. Meshcheryakov, in 1938 there was even a question of liquidating the Radium Institute, which, in some opinion, was engaged in unnecessary research on uranium and thorium, while the country was trying to increase coal production and steel smelting.

The letter to Molotov had an effect, and already in June 1938, a commission from the USSR Academy of Sciences, headed by P.L. Kapitsa, at the request of the government, gave a conclusion on the need to build a 10–20 MeV cyclotron at the LFTI, depending on the type of accelerated particles, and to improve the RIAN cyclotron.

In November 1938, S.I. Vavilov, in an appeal to the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences, proposed to build the LPTI cyclotron in Moscow and transfer I.V.’s laboratory to the Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences (FIAN) from LPTI. Kurchatova, who was involved in its creation. Sergei Ivanovich wanted the central laboratory for the study of the atomic nucleus to be located in the same place where the Academy of Sciences was located, that is, in Moscow. However, he was not supported at LPTI. The controversy ended at the end of 1939, when A.F. Ioffe proposed creating three cyclotrons at once. On July 30, 1940, at a meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, it was decided to instruct RIAN to retrofit the existing cyclotron this year, FIAN to prepare the necessary materials for the construction of a new powerful cyclotron by October 15, and LFTI to complete the construction of the cyclotron in the first quarter of 1941.

In connection with this decision, the FIAN created the so-called cyclotron team, which included Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler, Sergei Nikolaevich Vernov, Pavel Alekseevich Cherenkov, Leonid Vasilyevich Groshev and Evgeniy Lvovich Feinberg. On September 26, 1940, the Bureau of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (OPMS) heard information from V.I. Wexler on the design specifications for the cyclotron, approved its main characteristics and construction estimates. The cyclotron was designed to accelerate deuterons to an energy of 50 MeV. FIAN planned to begin its construction in 1941 and launch it in 1943. The plans were disrupted by the war.

The urgent need to create an atomic bomb forced the Soviet Union to mobilize efforts in the study of the microworld. Two cyclotrons were built one after another at Laboratory No. 2 in Moscow (1944, 1946); in Leningrad, after the blockade was lifted, the cyclotrons of RIAN and LPTI were restored (1946).

Although the FIAN cyclotron project was approved before the war, it became clear that Lawrence’s design had exhausted itself, since the energy of accelerated protons could not exceed 20 MeV. It is from this energy that the effect of increasing the mass of a particle at speeds commensurate with the speed of light begins to be felt, which follows from Einstein’s theory of relativity

Due to the increase in mass, the resonance between the passage of a particle through the accelerating gap and the corresponding phase of the electric field is disrupted, which entails braking.

It should be noted that the cyclotron is designed to accelerate only heavy particles (protons, ions). This is due to the fact that due to the too small rest mass, the electron already at energies of 1–3 MeV reaches a speed close to the speed of light, as a result of which its mass increases noticeably and the particle quickly leaves resonance.

The first cyclic electron accelerator was the betatron, built by Kerst in 1940 based on Wideroe's idea. The betatron is based on Faraday's law, according to which, when the magnetic flux penetrating a closed circuit changes, an electromotive force appears in this circuit. In a betatron, a closed loop is a stream of particles moving in a circular orbit in a vacuum chamber of constant radius in a gradually increasing magnetic field. When the magnetic flux inside the orbit increases, an electromotive force arises, the tangential component of which accelerates the electrons. In a betatron, like a cyclotron, there is a limitation to producing very high energy particles. This is due to the fact that, according to the laws of electrodynamics, electrons moving in circular orbits emit electromagnetic waves, which carry away a lot of energy at relativistic speeds. To compensate for these losses, it is necessary to significantly increase the size of the magnet core, which has a practical limit.

Thus, by the early 1940s, the possibilities for obtaining higher energies from both protons and electrons had been exhausted. For further research of the microworld, it was necessary to increase the energy of accelerated particles, so the task of finding new acceleration methods became urgent.

In February 1944, V.I. Wexler put forward a revolutionary idea on how to overcome the energy barrier of the cyclotron and betatron. It was so simple that it seemed strange why they had not come to it earlier. The idea was that during resonant acceleration, the rotation frequencies of particles and the accelerating field should constantly coincide, in other words, be synchronous. When accelerating heavy relativistic particles in a cyclotron, for synchronization it was proposed to change the frequency of the accelerating electric field according to a certain law (later on, such an accelerator was called a synchrocyclotron).

To accelerate relativistic electrons, an accelerator was proposed, which was later called a synchrotron. In it, acceleration is carried out by an alternating electric field of constant frequency, and synchronism is ensured by a magnetic field varying according to a certain law, which keeps particles in an orbit of constant radius.

For practical purposes, it was necessary to theoretically verify that the proposed acceleration processes are stable, that is, with minor deviations from resonance, the phasing of particles will occur automatically. Theoretical physicist of the cyclotron team E.L. Feinberg drew Wexler's attention to this and himself strictly mathematically proved the stability of the processes. That is why Wexler’s idea was called the “autophasing principle.”

To discuss the resulting solution, FIAN held a seminar, at which Wexler gave an introductory report, and Feinberg gave a report on sustainability. The work was approved, and in the same 1944, the journal “Reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences” published two articles that discussed new methods of acceleration (the first article dealt with an accelerator based on multiple frequencies, later called a microtron). Their author was listed only as Wexler, and Feinberg's name was not mentioned at all. Very soon, Feinberg's role in the discovery of the autophasing principle was undeservedly consigned to complete oblivion.

A year later, the principle of autophasing was independently discovered by the American physicist E. MacMillan, but Wexler retained priority.

It should be noted that in accelerators based on the new principle, the “rule of leverage” was clearly manifested - a gain in energy entailed a loss in the intensity of the beam of accelerated particles, which is associated with the cyclical nature of their acceleration, in contrast to the smooth acceleration in cyclotrons and betatrons. This unpleasant point was immediately pointed out at the session of the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences on February 20, 1945, but at the same time everyone unanimously came to the conclusion that this circumstance should in no case interfere with the implementation of the project. Although, by the way, the struggle for intensity subsequently constantly annoyed the “accelerators”.

At the same session, at the proposal of the President of the USSR Academy of Sciences S.I. Vavilov, it was decided to immediately build two types of accelerators proposed by Wexler. On February 19, 1946, the Special Committee under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR instructed the relevant commission to develop their projects, indicating the capacity, production time and place of construction. (The creation of a cyclotron was abandoned at FIAN.)

As a result, on August 13, 1946, two resolutions of the Council of Ministers of the USSR were simultaneously issued, signed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR I.V. Stalin and the manager of the affairs of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Ya.E. Chadaev, to create a synchrocyclotron with a deuteron energy of 250 MeV and a synchrotron with an energy of 1 GeV. The energy of the accelerators was dictated primarily by the political confrontation between the USA and the USSR. In the USA, they have already created a synchrocyclotron with a deuteron energy of about 190 MeV and have begun to build a synchrotron with an energy of 250–300 MeV. Domestic accelerators were supposed to exceed American ones in energy.

The synchrocyclotron was associated with hopes for the discovery of new elements, new ways of producing atomic energy from sources cheaper than uranium. With the help of a synchrotron, they intended to artificially produce mesons, which, as Soviet physicists assumed at that time, were capable of causing nuclear fission.

Both resolutions were issued with the stamp “Top Secret (special folder)”, since the construction of accelerators was carried out as part of the project to create an atomic bomb. With their help, they hoped to obtain an accurate theory of nuclear forces necessary for bomb calculations, which at that time were carried out only using a large set of approximate models. True, everything turned out to be not as simple as initially thought, and it should be noted that such a theory has not been created to this day.

The resolutions determined the construction sites for accelerators: the synchrotron - in Moscow, on Kaluzhskoe Highway (now Leninsky Prospekt), on the territory of the Lebedev Physical Institute; synchrocyclotron - in the area of the Ivankovskaya hydroelectric station, 125 kilometers north of Moscow (at that time Kalinin region). Initially, the creation of both accelerators was entrusted to FIAN. V.I. was appointed head of the synchrotron work. Veksler, and for the synchrocyclotron - D.V. Skobeltsyn.

On the left is Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor L.P. Zinoviev (1912–1998), on the right - Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences V.I. Wexler (1907–1966) during the creation of the synchrophasotron

Six months later, the head of the nuclear project I.V. Kurchatov, dissatisfied with the progress of work on the Fianov synchrocyclotron, transferred this topic to his Laboratory No. 2. He appointed M.G. as the new leader of the topic. Meshcheryakov, freed from work at the Leningrad Radium Institute. Under the leadership of Meshcheryakov, Laboratory No. 2 created a model of a synchrocyclotron, which has already experimentally confirmed the correctness of the autophasing principle. In 1947, construction of an accelerator began in the Kalinin region.

On December 14, 1949, under the leadership of M.G. Meshcheryakov synchrocyclotron was successfully launched on schedule and became the first accelerator of this type in the Soviet Union, exceeding the energy of a similar accelerator created in 1946 in Berkeley (USA). It remained a record until 1953.

Initially, the laboratory, based on a synchrocyclotron, was called the Hydrotechnical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences (GTL) for secrecy purposes and was a branch of Laboratory No. 2. In 1953, it was transformed into an independent Institute of Nuclear Problems of the USSR Academy of Sciences (INP), headed by M.G. Meshcheryakov.

Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences A.I. Leypunsky (1907–1972), based on the principle of autophasing, proposed the design of an accelerator, later called a synchrophasotron (photo: “Science and Life”)
The creation of a synchrotron was not possible for a number of reasons. Firstly, due to unforeseen difficulties, it was necessary to build two synchrotrons at lower energies - 30 and 250 MeV. They were located on the territory of the Lebedev Physical Institute, and they decided to build a 1 GeV synchrotron outside of Moscow. In June 1948, he was allocated a place several kilometers from the synchrocyclotron already under construction in the Kalinin region, but it was never built there either, since preference was given to the accelerator proposed by Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Alexander Ilyich Leypunsky. It happened as follows.

In 1946 A.I. Leypunsky, based on the principle of autophasing, put forward the idea of the possibility of creating an accelerator that combined the features of a synchrotron and a synchrocyclotron. Subsequently, Wexler called this type of accelerator a synchrophasotron. The name becomes clear if we consider that the synchrocyclotron was initially called a phasotron and, in combination with a synchrotron, a synchrophasotron is obtained. In it, as a result of changes in the control magnetic field, particles move in a ring, as in a synchrotron, and acceleration produces a high-frequency electric field, the frequency of which varies over time, as in a synchrocyclotron. This made it possible to significantly increase the energy of accelerated protons compared to the synchrocyclotron. In a synchrophasotron, protons are pre-accelerated in a linear accelerator - an injector. Particles introduced into the main chamber begin to circulate in it under the influence of a magnetic field. This mode is called betatron. Then the high-frequency accelerating voltage is turned on on the electrodes placed in two diametrically opposite straight gaps.

Of all three types of accelerators based on the autophasing principle, the synchrophasotron is technically the most complex, and then many doubted the possibility of its creation. But Leypunsky, confident that everything would work out, boldly set out to implement his idea.

In 1947, in Laboratory “B” near the Obninskoye station (now the city of Obninsk), a special accelerator group under his leadership began developing an accelerator. The first theorists of the synchrophasotron were Yu.A. Krutkov, O.D. Kazachkovsky and L.L. Sabsovich. In February 1948, a closed conference on accelerators was held, which, in addition to ministers, was attended by A.L. Mints, already a well-known specialist in radio engineering at that time, and the chief engineers of the Leningrad Elektrosila and transformer plants. They all stated that the accelerator proposed by Leypunsky could be made. Encouraging first theoretical results and the support of engineers from leading factories made it possible to begin work on a specific technical project for a large accelerator with a proton energy of 1.3–1.5 GeV and to begin experimental work that confirmed the correctness of Leipunsky’s idea. By December 1948, the technical design of the accelerator was ready, and by March 1949, Leypunsky was supposed to present a preliminary design of a 10 GeV synchrophasotron.

And suddenly in 1949, in the midst of work, the government decided to transfer the work on the synchrophasotron to the Lebedev Physical Institute. For what? Why? After all, FIAN is already creating a 1 GeV synchrotron! Yes, the fact of the matter is that both projects, the 1.5 GeV synchrotron and the 1 GeV synchrotron, were too expensive, and the question arose about their feasibility. It was finally resolved at one of the special meetings at FIAN, where the country's leading physicists gathered. They considered it unnecessary to build a 1 GeV synchrotron due to the lack of much interest in electron acceleration. The main opponent of this position was M.A. Markov. His main argument was that it was much more effective to study both protons and nuclear forces using the already well-studied electromagnetic interaction. However, he failed to defend his point of view, and the positive decision turned out to be in favor of Leipunsky’s project.

This is what a 10 GeV synchrophasotron looks like in Dubna

Wexler's cherished dream of building the largest accelerator was crumbling. Not wanting to put up with the current situation, he, with the support of S.I. Vavilova and D.V. Skobeltsyna proposed to abandon the construction of a 1.5 GeV synchrophasotron and begin designing a 10 GeV accelerator, previously entrusted to A.I. Leypunsky. The government accepted this proposal, since in April 1948 it became known about the 6-7 GeV synchrophasotron project at the University of California and they wanted to be ahead of the United States at least for a while.

On May 2, 1949, a decree was issued by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the creation of a synchrophasotron with an energy of 7–10 GeV on the territory previously allocated for the synchrotron. The topic was transferred to the Lebedev Physical Institute, and V.I. was appointed its scientific and technical director. Wexler, although Leypunsky was doing quite well.

This can be explained, firstly, by the fact that Wexler was considered the author of the autophasing principle and, according to the recollections of contemporaries, L.P. was very favorable towards him. Beria. Secondly, S.I. Vavilov was at that time not only the director of FIAN, but also the president of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Leypunsky was offered to become Wexler's deputy, but he refused and did not participate in the creation of the synchrophasotron in the future. According to Deputy Leypunsky O.D. Kazachkovsky, “it was clear that two bears would not get along in one den.” Subsequently A.I. Leypunsky and O.D. Kazachkovsky became leading experts on reactors and in 1960 were awarded the Lenin Prize.

The resolution included a clause on the transfer to work at the Lebedev Physical Institute of Laboratory “B” employees involved in the development of the accelerator, with the transfer of the corresponding equipment. And there was something to convey: work on the accelerator in Laboratory “B” had by that time been brought to the stage of a model and justification of the main decisions.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about the transfer to FIAN, since Leypunsky was easy and interesting to work with: he was not only an excellent scientific supervisor, but also a wonderful person. However, it was almost impossible to refuse the transfer: at that harsh time, refusal threatened with trial and camps.

The group transferred from Laboratory “B” included engineer Leonid Petrovich Zinoviev. He, like other members of the accelerator group, in Leypunsky's laboratory first worked on the development of individual components necessary for the model of the future accelerator, in particular the ion source and high-voltage pulse circuits for powering the injector. Leypunsky immediately drew attention to the competent and creative engineer. On his instructions, Zinoviev was the first to be involved in the creation of a pilot installation in which the entire process of proton acceleration could be simulated. Then no one could have imagined that, having become one of the pioneers in bringing the idea of a synchrophasotron to life, Zinoviev would be the only person who would go through all the stages of its creation and improvement. And he will not just pass, but lead them.

Theoretical and experimental results obtained in Laboratory “B” were used at the Lebedev Physical Institute when designing a 10 GeV synchrophasotron. However, increasing the accelerator energy to this value required significant modifications. The difficulties of its creation were greatly aggravated by the fact that at that time there was no experience in the construction of such large installations throughout the world.

Under the guidance of theorists M.S. Rabinovich and A.A. Kolomensky at FIAN made a physical substantiation of the technical project. The main components of the synchrophasotron were developed by the Moscow Radiotechnical Institute of the Academy of Sciences and the Leningrad Research Institute under the leadership of their directors A.L. Mints and E.G. Mosquito.

To obtain the necessary experience, we decided to build a model of a synchrophasotron with an energy of 180 MeV. It was located on the territory of the Lebedev Physical Institute in a special building, which, for reasons of secrecy, was called warehouse No. 2. At the beginning of 1951, Wexler entrusted all work on the model, including installation of equipment, adjustment and its comprehensive launch, to Zinoviev.

The Fianov model was by no means small - its magnet with a diameter of 4 meters weighed 290 tons. Subsequently, Zinoviev recalled that when they assembled the model in accordance with the first calculations and tried to launch it, at first nothing worked. Many unforeseen technical difficulties had to be overcome before the model was launched. When this happened in 1953, Wexler said: “That’s it! The Ivankovsky synchrophasotron will work!” We were talking about a large 10 GeV synchrophasotron, which had already begun to be built in 1951 in the Kalinin region. Construction was carried out by an organization code-named TDS-533 (Technical Directorate of Construction 533).

Shortly before the launch of the model, a message unexpectedly appeared in an American magazine about a new design of the accelerator magnetic system, called hard-focusing. It is performed in the form of a set of alternating sections with oppositely directed magnetic field gradients. This significantly reduces the amplitude of oscillations of accelerated particles, which in turn makes it possible to significantly reduce the cross-section of the vacuum chamber. As a result, a large amount of iron used for the construction of the magnet is saved. For example, the 30 GeV accelerator in Geneva, based on hard focusing, has three times the energy and three times the circumference of the Dubna synchrophasotron, and its magnet is ten times lighter.

The design of hard focusing magnets was proposed and developed by American scientists Courant, Livingston and Snyder in 1952. A few years before them, Christofilos came up with the same idea, but did not publish it.

Zinoviev immediately appreciated the Americans’ discovery and proposed redesigning the Dubna synchrophasotron. But this would have to sacrifice time. Wexler said then: “No, at least for one day, but we must be ahead of the Americans.” Probably, in the conditions of the Cold War, he was right - “one doesn’t change horses in midstream.” And they continued to build the large accelerator according to the previously developed project. In 1953, on the basis of the synchrophasotron under construction, the Electrophysical Laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences (EFLAN) was created. V.I. was appointed its director. Wexler.

In 1956, INP and EFLAN formed the basis of the established Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR). Its location became known as the city of Dubna. By that time, the proton energy at the synchrocyclotron was 680 MeV, and the construction of the synchrophasotron was being completed. From the first days of the formation of JINR, a stylized drawing of the synchrophasotron building (by V.P. Bochkarev) became its official symbol.

The model helped solve a number of issues for the 10 GeV accelerator, but the design of many nodes underwent significant changes due to the large difference in size. The average diameter of the synchrophasotron electromagnet was 60 meters, and the weight was 36 thousand tons (according to its parameters, it still remains in the Guinness Book of Records). A whole range of new complex engineering problems arose, which the team successfully solved.

Finally, everything was ready for the comprehensive launch of the accelerator. By order of Wexler, it was led by L.P. Zinoviev. Work began at the end of December 1956, the situation was tense, and Vladimir Iosifovich did not spare either himself or his employees. We often stayed overnight on cots right in the installation’s huge control room. According to the memoirs of A.A. Kolomensky, Wexler spent most of his inexhaustible energy at that time on “extorting” help from external organizations and on implementing sensible proposals, which largely came from Zinoviev. Wexler highly valued his experimental intuition, which played a decisive role in the launch of the giant accelerator.

For a very long time they could not get the betatron mode, without which launch is impossible. And it was Zinoviev who, at a crucial moment, understood what had to be done to breathe life into the synchrophasotron. The experiment, which had been prepared for two weeks, was finally crowned with success, to everyone’s joy. On March 15, 1957, the Dubna synchrophasotron started working, as the Pravda newspaper reported to the whole world on April 11, 1957 (article by V.I. Veksler). It is interesting that this news appeared only when the energy of the accelerator, gradually raised from the day of launch, exceeded the energy of 6.3 GeV of the then leading American synchrophasotron in Berkeley. “There are 8.3 billion electron volts!” - the newspaper reported, announcing that a record accelerator had been created in the Soviet Union. Wexler's cherished dream has come true!

On April 16, the proton energy reached the design value of 10 GeV, but the accelerator was put into operation only a few months later, since there were still quite a few unsolved technical problems. And yet the main thing was behind us - the synchrophasotron started working.

Wexler reported this at the second session of the Academic Council of the Joint Institute in May 1957. At the same time, the director of the institute D.I. Blokhintsev noted that, firstly, the synchrophasotron model was created in a year and a half, while in America it took about two years. Secondly, the synchrophasotron itself was launched in three months, on schedule, although at first it seemed unrealistic. It was the launch of the synchrophasotron that brought Dubna its first worldwide fame.

At the third session of the scientific council of the institute, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences V.P. Dzhelepov noted that “Zinoviev was in all respects the soul of the startup and contributed a colossal amount of energy and effort to this matter, namely creative effort during the setup of the machine.” A D.I. Blokhintsev added that “Zinoviev actually bore the enormous labor of complex adjustment.”

Thousands of people were involved in the creation of the synchrophasotron, but Leonid Petrovich Zinoviev played a special role in this. Veksler wrote: “The success of the launch of the synchrophasotron and the possibility of starting a wide range of physical work on it are largely associated with the participation of L.P. in these works. Zinoviev."

Zinoviev planned to return to FIAN after the launch of the accelerator. However, Wexler begged him to stay, believing that he could not entrust anyone else with the management of the synchrophasotron. Zinoviev agreed and supervised the work of the accelerator for more than thirty years. Under his leadership and direct participation, the accelerator was constantly improved. Zinoviev loved the synchrophasotron and very subtly felt the breath of this iron giant. According to him, there was not a single part of the accelerator, even the slightest bit, that he did not touch and the purpose of which he did not know.

In October 1957, at an extended meeting of the scientific council of the Kurchatov Institute, chaired by Igor Vasilyevich himself, seventeen people from various organizations who participated in the creation of the synchrophasotron were nominated for the most prestigious Lenin Prize in the Soviet Union at that time. But according to the conditions, the number of laureates could not exceed twelve people. In April 1959, the prize was awarded to the director of the JINR High Energy Laboratory V.I. Veksler, head of department of the same laboratory L.P. Zinoviev, Deputy Head of the Main Directorate for the Use of Atomic Energy under the Council of Ministers of the USSR D.V. Efremov, director of the Leningrad Research Institute E.G. Komar and his collaborators N.A. Monoszon, A.M. Stolov, director of the Moscow Radio Engineering Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences A.L. Mints, employees of the same institute F.A. Vodopyanov, S.M. Rubchinsky, FIAN employees A.A. Kolomensky, V.A. Petukhov, M.S. Rabinovich. Veksler and Zinoviev became honorary citizens of Dubna.

The synchrophasotron remained in service for forty-five years. During this time, a number of discoveries were made on it. In 1960, the synchrophasotron model was converted into an electron accelerator, which is still operating at the Lebedev Physical Institute.

sources

Literature:
Kolomensky A. A., Lebedev A. N. Theory of cyclic accelerators. - M., 1962.
Komar E. G. Accelerators of charged particles. - M., 1964.
Livingood J. Principles of operation of cyclic accelerators - M., 1963.
Oganesyan Yu. How the cyclotron was created / Science and Life, 1980 No. 4, p. 73.
Hill R. Following the tracks of particles - M., 1963.

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And I’ll remind you about some other settings: for example, and what it looks like. Remember also what . Or maybe you don't know? or what is it The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

+ phase + electron) is a resonant cyclic accelerator with a constant equilibrium orbit length during the acceleration process. In order for the particles to remain in the same orbit during the acceleration process, both the leading magnetic field and the frequency of the accelerating electric field change. The latter is necessary so that the beam always arrives at the accelerating section in phase with the high-frequency electric field. In the event that the particles are ultrarelativistic, the rotation frequency, for a fixed orbital length, does not change with increasing energy, and the frequency of the RF generator must also remain constant. Such an accelerator is already called a synchrotron.

In culture

It was this device that the first-grader was “doing at work” in Alla Pugacheva’s famous song “The First-Grader’s Song.” The synchrophasotron is also mentioned in Gaidai’s comedy “Operation Y and Shurik’s Other Adventures.” This device is also shown as an example of the application of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in the educational short film "What is the Theory of Relativity?" In low-brow comedy shows for the general public, it often appears as an "incomprehensible" scientific device or an example of high technology.

So, we come to the most important thing, to the person who made a significant contribution to the development of physics in our country in those years - Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler. This outstanding physicist will be discussed further.

V. I. Veksler was born in Ukraine in the city of Zhitomir on March 3, 1907. His father died in the First World War.

In 1921, during a period of severe famine and devastation, with great difficulties and without money, Volodya Veksler found himself in hungry pre-NEP Moscow. The teenager finds himself in a commune house established in Khamovniki, in an old mansion abandoned by the owners.

Wexler was distinguished by his interest in physics and practical radio engineering; he himself assembled a detector radio receiver, which in those years was an unusually difficult task, he read a lot, and studied well at school.
After leaving the commune, Wexler retained many of the views and habits he had fostered.
Let us note that the generation to which Vladimir Iosifovich belonged, the overwhelming majority treated the everyday aspects of their lives with complete disdain, but was fanatically interested in scientific, professional and social problems.

Wexler, along with other communards, graduated from a nine-year high school and, together with all the graduates, entered production as a worker, where he worked as an electrician for more than two years.
His thirst for knowledge, love of books and rare intelligence were noticed and in the late 20s the young man received a “Komsomol ticket” to the institute.
When Vladimir Iosifovich graduated from college, another reorganization of higher educational institutions was carried out and their names were changed. It turned out that Wexler entered the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy, and graduated from MPEI (Moscow Energy Institute) and received a qualification as an engineer with a specialty in X-ray technology.
In the same year, he entered the X-ray diffraction analysis laboratory of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute in Lefortovo, where Vladimir Iosifovich began his work by building measuring instruments and studying methods for measuring ionizing radiation, i.e. streams of charged particles.

Wexler worked in this laboratory for 6 years, quickly rising from laboratory assistant to manager. Here Wexler’s characteristic “handwriting” as a talented experimental scientist has already appeared. His student, Professor M. S. Rabinovich subsequently wrote in his memoirs about Wexler: “For almost 20 years he himself assembled and installed various installations he invented, never shying away from any work. This allowed him to see not only the façade, not only its ideological side , but also everything that is hidden behind the final results, behind the accuracy of measurements, behind the shiny cabinets of installations. He studied and relearned all his life until the very last years of his life, in the evenings, on vacation, he carefully studied and took notes on theoretical works.”

In September 1937, Wexler moved from the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute to the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after P. N. Lebedev (FIAN). This was an important event in the life of the scientist.

By this time, Vladimir Iosifovich had already defended his Ph.D. thesis, the topic of which was the design and application of the “proportional amplifiers” he had designed.

At FIAN, Wexler began studying cosmic rays. Unlike A.I. Alikhanov and his colleagues, who took a fancy to the picturesque Mount Aragats in Armenia, Wexler participated in scientific expeditions to Elbrus, and then, later, to the Pamirs - the Roof of the World. Physicists around the world studied streams of high-energy charged particles that could not be obtained in earthly laboratories. Researchers rose closer to the mysterious streams of cosmic radiation.

Even now, cosmic rays occupy an important place in the arsenal of astrophysicists and specialists in high-energy physics, and excitingly interesting theories of their origin are put forward. At the same time, it was simply impossible to obtain particles with such energy for study, and for physicists it was simply necessary to study their interaction with fields and other particles. Already in the thirties, many atomic scientists had a thought: how good it would be to obtain particles of such high “cosmic” energies in the laboratory using reliable instruments for studying subatomic particles, the method of studying which was one - bombardment (as they figuratively used to say and rarely say now) some particles by others. Rutherford discovered the existence of the atomic nucleus by bombarding atoms with powerful projectiles - alpha particles. Nuclear reactions were discovered using the same method. To transform one chemical element into another, it was necessary to change the composition of the nucleus. This was achieved by bombarding nuclei with alpha particles, and now with particles accelerated in powerful accelerators.

After the invasion of Nazi Germany, many physicists immediately became involved in work of military significance. Wexler interrupted his study of cosmic rays and began designing and improving radio equipment for the needs of the front.

At this time, the Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences, like some other academic institutes, was evacuated to Kazan. Only in 1944 was it possible to organize an expedition to the Pamirs from Kazan, where Wexler’s group was able to continue the research begun in the Caucasus on cosmic rays and nuclear processes caused by high-energy particles. Without considering in detail Wexler's contribution to the study of nuclear processes associated with cosmic rays, to which many years of his work were devoted, we can say that he was very significant and gave many important results. But perhaps most importantly, his study of cosmic rays led him to completely new ideas about particle acceleration. In the mountains, Wexler came up with the idea of building charged particle accelerators to create his own “cosmic rays.”

Since 1944, V. I. Veksler moved to a new area, which occupied the main place in his scientific work. Since that time, Wexler's name has been forever associated with the creation of large "autophasing" accelerators and the development of new acceleration methods.

However, he did not lose interest in cosmic rays and continued to work in this area. Wexler participated in high-mountain scientific expeditions to the Pamirs during 1946-1947. Particles of fantastically high energies that are inaccessible to accelerators are detected in cosmic rays. It was clear to Wexler that the “natural accelerator” of particles up to such high energies cannot be compared with the “creation of human hands.”

Wexler proposed a way out of this impasse in 1944. The author called the new principle by which Wechsler's accelerators operated autophasing.

By this time, an accelerator of charged particles of the “cyclotron” type had been created (Wechsler, in a popular newspaper article, explained the principle of operation of the cyclotron as follows: “In this device, a charged particle, moving in a magnetic field in a spiral, is continuously accelerated by an alternating electric field. Thanks to this, it is possible to communicate to the cyclotron particles with an energy of 10-20 million electron volts"). But it became clear that the 20 MeV threshold could not be passed using this method.

In a cyclotron, the magnetic field changes cyclically, accelerating charged particles. But in the process of acceleration, the mass of particles increases (as it should be according to SRT - the special theory of relativity). This leads to a disruption of the process - after a certain number of revolutions, the magnetic field, instead of accelerating, begins to slow down the particles.

Wexler proposes to begin to slowly increase the magnetic field in the cyclotron over time, feeding the magnet with alternating current. Then it turns out that, on average, the frequency of rotation of particles in a circle will automatically be maintained equal to the frequency of the electric field applied to the dees (a pair of magnetic systems that bend the path and accelerate the particles with a magnetic field).

With each passage through the slit of the dees, the particles have and additionally receive a different increase in mass (and, accordingly, they receive a different increment of the radius along which the magnetic field turns them) depending on the field voltage between the dees at the moment of acceleration of a given particle. Among all particles, equilibrium (“lucky”) particles can be distinguished. For these particles, the mechanism that automatically maintains the constancy of the orbital period is especially simple.

“Lucky” particles experience an increase in mass and an increase in the radius of the circle each time they pass through the dee slit. It precisely compensates for the decrease in radius caused by the increment in the magnetic field during one revolution. Consequently, “lucky” (equilibrium) particles can be resonantly accelerated as long as the magnetic field increases.

It turned out that almost all other particles have the same ability, only acceleration lasts longer. During the acceleration process, all particles will experience oscillations around the orbital radius of the equilibrium particles. The energy of particles on average will be equal to the energy of equilibrium particles. So, almost all particles participate in resonant acceleration.

If, instead of slowly increasing the magnetic field in the accelerator (cyclotron) over time, feeding the magnet with alternating current, we increase the period of the alternating electric field applied to the dees, then the “autophasing” mode will be established.

"It may seem that in order for autophasing to occur and resonant acceleration to occur, it is necessary to change in time either the magnetic field or the electric period. In fact, this is not so. Perhaps the simplest in concept (but far from simple in practical implementation) method of acceleration, established by the author earlier than other methods, can be implemented with a magnetic field constant over time and a constant frequency."

In 1955, when Wexler wrote his brochure on accelerators, this principle, as the author pointed out, formed the basis of an accelerator - a microtron - an accelerator requiring powerful sources of microwaves. According to Wexler, the microtron “has not yet become widespread (1955). However, several electron accelerators with energies up to 4 MeV have been operating for a number of years.”

Wexler was a brilliant popularizer of physics, but, unfortunately, due to his busy schedule, he rarely published popular articles.

The autophasing principle has shown that it is possible to have a stable phase region and, therefore, it is possible to change the frequency of the accelerating field without fear of leaving the resonant acceleration region. You just need to choose the right acceleration phase. By changing the field frequency it became possible to easily compensate for the change in particle mass. Moreover, changing the frequency allowed the rapidly spinning spiral of the cyclotron to be brought closer to a circle and accelerate the particles until the magnetic field strength was enough to keep the particles in a given orbit.

The described accelerator with autophasing, in which the frequency of the electromagnetic field changes, is called a synchrocyclotron, or phasotron.

The synchrophasotron uses a combination of two autophasing principles. The first of them lies at the heart of the phasotron, which has already been mentioned - this is a change in the frequency of the electromagnetic field. The second principle is used in synchrotrons - here the magnetic field strength changes.

Since the discovery of autophasing, scientists and engineers have begun designing accelerators capable of billions of electron volts. The first of these in our country was a proton accelerator - a 10 billion electron-volt synchrophasotron in Dubna.

The design of this large accelerator began in 1949 on the initiative of V. I. Veksler and S. I. Vavilov, and was put into operation in 1957. The second large accelerator was built in Protvino near Serpukhov with an energy of 70 GeV. Not only Soviet researchers, but also physicists from other countries are now working on it.

But long before the launch of two giant “billion-dollar” accelerators, relativistic particle accelerators were built at the Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences (FIAN), under the leadership of Wexler. In 1947, an electron accelerator up to energies of 30 MeV was launched, which served as a model of a larger electron accelerator - a synchrotron with an energy of 250 MeV. The synchrotron was launched in 1949. Using these accelerators, researchers at the Physics Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences carried out first-class work on meson physics and the atomic nucleus.

After the launch of the Dubna synchrophasotron, a period of rapid progress began in the construction of high-energy accelerators. Many accelerators were built and put into operation in the USSR and other countries. These include the already mentioned 70 GeV accelerator in Serpukhov, 50 GeV in Batavia (USA), 35 GeV in Geneva (Switzerland), 35 GeV in California (USA). Currently, physicists are setting themselves the task of creating accelerators of several teraelectron-volts (teraelectron-volt - 1012 eV).

In 1944, when the term "autophasing" was born. Wexler was 37 years old. Wexler turned out to be a gifted organizer of scientific work and the head of a scientific school.

The autophasing method, like a ripe fruit, was waiting for a scientist-seer who would remove it and take possession of it. A year later, independently of Wexler, the principle of autophasing was discovered by the famous American scientist McMilan. He recognized the priority of the Soviet scientist. McMillan met with Wexler more than once. They were very friendly, and the friendship of two remarkable scientists was never overshadowed by anything until Wexler’s death.

Accelerators built in recent years, although based on Wechsler's autophasing principle, are, of course, significantly improved compared to first-generation machines.

In addition to autophasing, Wexler came up with other ideas for particle acceleration that turned out to be very fruitful. The development of these ideas of Wexler is widely pursued in the USSR and other countries.

In March 1958, the traditional annual meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences took place in the House of Scientists on Kropotkinskaya Street. Wexler outlined the idea of a new principle of acceleration, which he called “coherent.” It allows you to accelerate not only individual particles, but also plasma clots consisting of a large number of particles. The "coherent" acceleration method, as Wechsler cautiously said in 1958, allows one to think about the possibility of accelerating particles to energies of a thousand billion electron volts and even higher.

In 1962, Wexler, at the head of a delegation of scientists, flew to Geneva to participate in the International Conference on High Energy Physics. Among the forty members of the Soviet delegation were such prominent physicists as A. I. Alikhanov, N. N. Bogolyubov, D. I. Blokhintsev, I. Ya. Pomeranchuk, M. A. Markov. Many of the scientists on the delegation were accelerator specialists and students of Wexler.

Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler was for a number of years chairman of the Commission on High Energy Physics of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Physics.

On October 25, 1963, Wexler and his American colleague, Edwin McMillan, director of the radiation laboratory at Lawrence University of California, were awarded the American Atoms for Peace Prize.

Wexler was the permanent director of the High Energy Laboratory of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. Now the street named after him reminds us of Wexler’s stay in this city.

Wexler's research work was concentrated in Dubna for many years. He combined his work at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research with work at the P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, where in his distant youth he began his career as a researcher, and was a professor at Moscow State University, where he headed the department.

In 1963, Veksler was elected Academician-Secretary of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences and permanently held this important post.

The scientific achievements of V. I. Veksler were highly appreciated by awarding him the State Prize of the First Degree and the Lenin Prize (1959). The outstanding scientific, pedagogical, organizational and social activities of the scientist were awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals of the USSR.

Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler died suddenly on September 20, 1966 from a second heart attack. He was only 59 years old. In life, he always seemed younger than his years, was energetic, active and tireless.

At its core, a synchrophasotron is a huge installation for accelerating charged particles. The speeds of the elements in this device are very high, as is the energy released. By obtaining a picture of the mutual collision of particles, scientists can judge the properties of the material world and its structure.

The need to create an accelerator was discussed even before the start of the Great Patriotic War, when a group of Soviet physicists led by Academician A. Ioffe sent a letter to the USSR government. It emphasized the importance of creating a technical basis for studying the structure of the atomic nucleus. These questions already became the central problem of natural science; their solution could advance applied science, military affairs and energy.

In 1949, the design of the first installation, a proton accelerator, began. This building was built in Dubna by 1957. The proton accelerator, called the “synchrophasotron,” is a structure of enormous size. It is designed as a separate building of a research institute. The main part of the structure's area is occupied by a magnetic ring with a diameter of about 60 m. It is required to create an electromagnetic field with the required characteristics. It is in the space of the magnet that the particles are accelerated.

Operating principle of the synchrophasotron

The first powerful synchrophasotron accelerator was initially intended to be constructed based on a combination of two principles, previously used separately in the phasotron and synchrotron. The first principle is a change in the frequency of the electromagnetic field, the second is a change in the level of magnetic field strength.

The synchrophasotron operates on the principle of a cyclic accelerator. To keep the particle in the same equilibrium orbit, the frequency of the accelerating field changes. The particle beam always arrives at the accelerating part of the installation in phase with a high-frequency electric field. The synchrophasotron is sometimes called a weak-focusing proton synchrotron. An important parameter of a synchrophasotron is the intensity of the beam, which is determined by the number of particles it contains.

The synchrophasotron almost completely eliminates the errors and disadvantages inherent in its predecessor, the cyclotron. By changing the magnetic field induction and the frequency of particle recharge, the proton accelerator increases the energy of the particles, directing them along the desired course. The creation of such a device revolutionized nuclear

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