LS2 report: CERN’s oldest accelerator awakens

“Synchrotron (PS) is the beating heart of CERN’s accelerator system. Situated at the center of the complex, it feeds particle beams not only to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), but to many of CERN’s major facilities, including the Antimatter Factory and the East Area.” Klaus Hanke, head of the Proton Synchrotron operations team, chooses his words carefully to describe CERN’s oldest accelerator still in operation. On 4 March, the veteran accelerator received its first particle beam after a two-year shutdown, during which it underwent significant upgrades to prepare it for higher luminosity (an indicator of the number of collisions).