KEK

, known as KEK, is a Japanese organization whose purpose is to operate the largest particle physics laboratory in Japan, situated in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture. It was established in 1997¹. The term "KEK" is also used to refer to the laboratory itself, which employs approximately 695 employees¹. KEK's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics, material science, structural biology, radiation science, computing science, nuclear transmutation and so on. Numerous experiments have been constructed at KEK by the internal and international collaborations that have made use of them. Makoto Kobayashi, emeritus professor at KEK, is known globally for his work on CP-violation, and was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.

, known as KEK, is a Japanese organization whose purpose is to operate the largest particle physics laboratory in Japan, situated in Tsukuba, Ibaraki prefecture. It was established in 1997. The term "KEK" is also used to refer to the laboratory itself, which employs approximately 695 employees. KEK's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other infrastructure needed for high-energy physics, material science, structural biology, radiation science, computing science, nuclear transmutation and so on. Numerous experiments have been constructed at KEK by the internal and international collaborations that have made use of them. Makoto Kobayashi, emeritus professor at KEK, is known globally for his work on CP-violation, and was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.

History

KEK was established in 1997 in a reorganization of the Institute of Nuclear Study at the University of Tokyo (established in 1955), the National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (established in 1971), and the Meson Science Laboratory of the University of Tokyo (established in 1988). However, the reorganization was not a simple merge of the aforementioned laboratories. As such, KEK was not the only new institute created at that time, because not all of the work of the parent institutions fell under the umbrella of high energy physics; for example, the Center for Nuclear Study, the University of Tokyo, was concurrently established for low energy nuclear physics in a research partnership with RIKEN. 1971: National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (KEK) was established. 1976: The proton synchrotron (PS) produced an 8 GeV beam as designed. The PS achieved 12 GeV. 1978: The Booster Synchrotron Utilization Facility and a Photon Factory (PF) were founded. 1982: The PF succeeded in storing a 2.5 GeV electron beam. 1984: The Transposable Ring Intersecting Storage Accelerator in Nippon (TRISTAN) Accumulation Ring (AR) accelerated an electron beam to 6.5 GeV. 1985: The AR accelerated a positron beam to 5 GeV. 1986: The TRISTAN Main Ring (MR) accelerated both electron and positron beams to 25.5 GeV. 1988: The MR energy was upgraded to 30 GeV with the help of superconducting accelerating cavities. 1989: Accelerator and Synchrotron Radiation Science departments were established in the Graduate University for Advanced Studies. 1994: KEKB B-factory construction began. 1995: TRISTAN experiments (AMY, JADE, TOPAZ, VENUS) finished. 1997: The High Energy Accelerator Research Organization was established. 1998: First beam storage at KEKB (KEK B-factory) ring. 1999: The Long-baseline Neutrino Oscillation experiment (K2K) began. The Belle experiment at the KEKB began operation. 2001: Construction of High Intensity Proton Accelerators (J-PARC) started. 2004: Became the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation High Energy Accelerator Research Organization. K2K experiment ended. 2005: Tokai Campus was opened. Experiments at PS ended. 2006: J-PARC Center was established. 2008: Prof. Makoto Kobayashi won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics. 2009: J-PARC construction was completed. 2016: First turns and successful storage of beams in the SuperKEKB electron and positron rings 2017: Completed the 'rolling-in' of the Belle II experiment in Tsukuba, Japan. 2018: First collisions of SuperKEKB beams inside Belle II detector SuperKEKB: An electron-positron collider, consisting of a 7 GeV electron storage ring and a 4 GeV positron storage ring, to achieve higher luminosity by means of increasing the beam current, focusing the beams at the interaction point and making the electromagnetic beam-beam interactions small. The target luminosity has been set to 8×10 35 cm −2 s −1 , about 60 times higher than the KEKB's original design value. SuperKEKB has adopted a nano-beam scheme. KEK will build a new damping ring in order to generate the nano scale positron beam. On October, 2010 the Japanese government formally approved the SuperKEKB project, and in June 2010 an initial budget of 100 million dollars (¥100 = $1) for a Very Advanced Research Support Program was assigned for 2010–2012. The total budget is about 315 million dollars (¥100 = $1) by the program. The upgrade will be completed, and the first collisions have been conducted in 2018. The highest luminosity will be achieved in 2021. Belle II experiment will be conducted using SuperKEKB. Compact Energy Recovery Linac (cERL): A test accelerator for a future synchrotron light source named Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). cERL will study the uncertainty of the accelerator physics in the ERL through the beam experiments. The beam commissioning in cERL will be scheduled from 2013 with a 35 MeV electron beam. KEK has a plan that will build 5 GeV ERL, provides ultra-high brightness and ultra-short pulsed synchrotron light, after the cERL experiments. International Linear Collider (ILC): A future electron-positron linear collider consisting of superconducting cavities with a length of approximately 31 kilometers in length and two damping rings, for electrons and positrons, with a circumference of 6.7 kilometers. The electron and positron energy will be up to 500 GeV with an option to upgrade to 1 TeV. Nearly 300 laboratories and universities around the world are involved in the ILC: more than 700 people are working on the accelerator design, and another 900 people on detector development. The accelerator design work is coordinated by the Global Design Effort, and the physics and detector work by the World Wide Study.

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