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Protons from the Main Injector start the antiproton creation process by colliding onto a
stack of nickel plates called the Target. For every 1 million protons colliding in these nickel
plates, only about 20-30 8 GeV antiprotons are produced (giga electron volts, remember giga = billion).
With only twenty or so antiprotons created, there needs to be a way to separate the antiprotons from
the other particles that are also produced when the proton beam collides with the target. Using pulsed
magnets to separate all of the other resultant particles from the 8 GeV antiprotons solves this problem.
Magnetic fields may be used to sort particles according to momentum, because they bend lower momentum
particles through greater angles. |
Target