The magnets of accelerators of the future will he Bi
Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 admin in Physical, Physics
The availability of magnets superconducting strongest interest to industrial and doctors but particle physicists. The U.S. government has allocated $ 4 million for the development of magnets based on bismuth, capable of intensity of magnetic fields at least twice those of the LHC.For the operation of particle accelerators like the Tevatron or LHC, it is necessary to have superconducting magnets to bend and focus beams of particles moving at nearly the speed of light.
In both cases, the technology used is based on alloys of niobium and titanium, which allows the magnets of the accelerator at Fermilab to reach the 4 Tesla and those of the 8 Tesla LHC. We would do better and one of the promising ways is to use alloys of bismuth and tin. One example is recently arrived at intensities of 13 Tesla with such materials and magnetic media specialists do not exclude the idea that we may one day reach 50 Tesla.
Therefore the Fermilab as part of the High Field Superconducting Magnet Collaboration involving private laboratories and U.S. national, recently endowed with $ 4 million, is being launched in tests on cables manufactured BSCCO2212. The problem to overcome is that its manufacture requires heating the material to 800 ° C. In doing so, he becomes a kind of ceramic and it breaks easily.
The research on magnets fitted to the Tevatron has now been launched 30 years ago and have had significant impacts in the field of the MRI increasing the resolution of images obtained and to bring powerful devices in several hospitals while they were quite active in research laboratories in neuroscience.The bismuth superconducting magnets are certainly more than magnets for future accelerators.