edgepedia

Accelerator facilities and experiments

133 articles

NA62 experiment

NA62 is a fixed-target particle physics experiment at CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron studying rare kaon decays, especially the ultra-rare decay of a kaon into a pion and two neutrinos.

NA64

NA64, or North Area experiment 64, is a CERN particle physics experiment at the Super Proton Synchrotron that searches for dark photons, axion-like particles, and light dark matter.

National Institute of Radiological Sciences

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS, 放射線医学総合研究所) was a Japanese institute in Chiba that pioneered carbon-ion cancer therapy and operated the HIMAC accelerator until 2016.

National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory

The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) was a National Science Foundation-funded nuclear physics user facility at Michigan State University that produced rare isotope beams until 2022.

National Synchrotron Light Source II

The National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) is a Department of Energy synchrotron light source at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, producing ultrabright X-rays for research.

nEDM@PSI

nEDM@PSI is a series of experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland that search for a permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron using ultracold neutrons.

NICA (collider)

NICA (Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility) is a heavy-ion and polarized-proton collider at JINR in Dubna, Russia, begun in 2013, which reached its first stable xenon beam in January 2026.

NOvA (νe)

NOvA (NuMI Off-axis νe Appearance) is a Fermilab neutrino oscillation experiment that sends a muon-neutrino beam 810 km from Batavia, Illinois, to Ash River, Minnesota.

Nuclear Science Laboratory (University of Notre Dame)

The Nuclear Science Laboratory is a low-energy nuclear physics facility at the University of Notre Dame, operating three on-campus particle accelerators since the late 1930s.

NuMI

NuMI (Neutrinos at the Main Injector) is a high-intensity muon neutrino beamline at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, completed in 2005, serving the MINOS, MINERvA, and NOvA experiments.

P2 experiment

The P2 experiment is a particle physics experiment under construction at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz that will measure the Standard Model's weak mixing angle to about 0.14% precision.

PANDA experiment

PANDA (antiProton ANnihilations at Darmstadt) is a key particle physics experiment under construction at FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany, using antiproton annihilation to study hadrons and the strong interaction.

PEP-II

PEP-II was a two-ring, asymmetric electron–positron B factory at SLAC's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center that delivered collisions to the BaBar detector from 1999 to 2008.

PETRA III

PETRA III is a high-brilliance synchrotron X-ray source at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, converted from the PETRA storage ring and opened to users in 2010.

Photon Factory

The Photon Factory is a synchrotron radiation facility at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan, producing intense X-ray and vacuum ultraviolet light for research; completed in 1982, it was Japan's first dedicated X-ray light source.

Pohang Light Source

The Pohang Light Source (PLS, 포항방사광가속기) is a synchrotron radiation facility in Pohang, South Korea, operated by PAL and POSTECH and upgraded to 3.0 GeV in 2012.

Proton Improvement Plan II

Proton Improvement Plan II (PIP-II) is a Fermilab project building an 800 MeV superconducting linear accelerator that will provide the world's most intense high-energy neutrino beam for DUNE.

Proton Synchrotron (CERN)

The Proton Synchrotron (PS) is a 628-meter-circumference synchrotron at CERN, its oldest operating machine, that first accelerated protons in 1959 and today feeds the Large Hadron Collider.

SACLA

SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron LAser) is an X-ray free-electron laser facility in Hyogo, Japan, opened in 2012 as the world's second XFEL, distinguished by its compact 700-meter design.

SAMURAI spectrometer

The SAMURAI spectrometer, short for Superconducting Analyzer for Multi-particles from Radioisotope beams, is a wide-acceptance spectrometer at RIKEN's RI Beam Factory in Wako, Japan, used for radioactive-beam reaction experiments since 2012.

Saturne (particle accelerator)

Saturne was a proton synchrotron at the CEA's Saclay nuclear research center near Paris, operating from 1958 to 1997, later rebuilt as SATURNE-2 for nuclear physics.

SeaQuest

SeaQuest (Fermilab experiment E-906) was a fixed-target Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab that used 120 GeV protons to measure the antiquark structure of the proton and nuclei.

Short-Baseline Neutrino Program

The Short-Baseline Neutrino Program is a Fermilab neutrino oscillation experiment with three liquid argon detectors on the Booster Neutrino Beam, built to test whether a sterile neutrino explains long-standing anomalies.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, formerly the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory in Menlo Park, California, operated by Stanford University since 1962.

SOLEIL (synchrotron)

SOLEIL is France's national third-generation synchrotron radiation source on the Saclay plateau near Paris, opened in 2008, serving several thousand researchers a year across 29 beamlines from infrared to X-rays.

Spallation Neutron Source

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is a Department of Energy user facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, producing the world's most intense pulsed neutron beams for materials research since 2006.

SPring-8

SPring-8, formally the Large-Scale Synchrotron Radiation Facility, is a synchrotron in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, producing intense X-rays with 8 GeV electrons; open since 1997, it serves over 200,000 users.

Stanford Linear Collider

The Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) was an electron-positron linear collider at SLAC in California, the only high-energy linear collider ever operated, which ran from 1989 to 1998 producing Z bosons.

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is a synchrotron X-ray user facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy.

Super Proton Synchrotron

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN, operating since 1976, known for the 1983 discovery of the W and Z bosons and now the Large Hadron Collider's final injector.