Maury Tigner
Hans A. Bethe Professor of Physics Emeritus
Director, Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education (CLASSE)
(faculty bio)
Welcome to the website for the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based Sciences and Education. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the activities going on at our lab.
CLASSE encompasses work in elementary particle physics, x-ray science and in the science and technology of accelerators needed for advancing the frontiers of these sciences. Under the umbrella of CLASSE are the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source for x-ray science (
CHESS) and the Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics (
LEPP).
Currently, both CHESS and LEPP use the electron and positron beams from the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (
CESR) for much of their research. The frontiers of x-ray science and elementary particle physics are evolving rapidly and, likewise, CLASSE activities are evolving apace.
Physicists at the Cornell Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics are hunting for hints of TeV-scale physics in quark and lepton decays. Using the Cornell Electron Storage Ring, the
experimental groups are making some of the most precise studies of decays that might be affected by new phenomena. The
accelerator and Superconducting RF (
SRF) groups have made numerous innovations that put CESR at the luminosity frontier, making this work possible. The LEPP theory group is also engaged in this enterprise, with a strong program in heavy quark phenomena and in the physics that might enter at very large scales.
Later in this decade, the Large Hadron Collider (
LHC) will shift exploration of the TeV scale from indirect searches at the precision frontier to direct searches at the energy frontier. Cornell is a collaborating institution on the
CMS experiment at the LHC. In the next decade the International Linear Collider (
ILC), a high energy, high luminosity e+e- collider, will expand on the LHC's discoveries. The experimental, accelerator and SRF groups are already active in the ILC, and will expand their role. The particle theory group will increasingly focus its attention on TeV-scale physics and beyond.
In the area of x-ray science, Cornell faculty, students and research associates are developing an entirely new accelerator concept, the Energy Recovery Linac (
ERL) that will use the CESR ring together with a specially designed superconducting linear accelerator. This new facility will produce x-ray beams brighter than any now available having almost complete coherence and x-ray pulse lengths in the femtosecond range. This combination of capabilities will open new areas in biology, nanoscience, chemistry and engineering among others, keeping Cornell at the frontier for many years to come.
Maury Tigner,
Ithaca, NY
September 2007
