The first ATAP Newsletter of 2025 showcases powerful new superconducting magnets that extend the capabilities of particle accelerators and colliders; an international collaboration aimed at advancing next-generation plasma-based accelerators; a new approach for studying nuclear-plasma interactions, research supporting national efforts to develop quantum technologies; and the latest ATAP honorees. You can also discover how the recommendations from the 2023 Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) Report are set to drive advancements in particle accelerator science and applications.
Improvements in accelerator capabilities go hand-in-hand with advancements in superconducting magnet technologies. Researchers from our Superconducting Magnet Program (SMP) are leading efforts to develop advanced accelerator magnets. For instance, they are collaborating with colleagues from the Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division on powerful new quadrupole magnets utilizing niobium-tin technology for the high-luminosity upgrade to the Large Hadron Collider. This upgrade will increase the collision rate of the accelerator’s proton beams and extend its capabilities.
Another key focus for the SMP team is developing next-generation magnets with high-temperature superconductors, such as rare-earth barium copper oxide and bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide. These magnets could enable future colliders that utilize proton and muon beams.
In recognition of his significant contributions to this research and his commitment to nurturing the next generation of accelerator scientists and engineers, SMP Senior Scientist and Deputy Paolo Ferracin, authored a chapter on superconducting accelerator magnets for the Proceedings of the Joint Universities Accelerator School (JUAS)—Courses and exercises, published by CERN last November to celebrate the school’s 30th anniversary.
For the first time, researchers from ATAP’s BELLA Center, in collaboration with colleagues from Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron and CERN, have analyzed the acceleration of high-quality flat beams in a plasma accelerator. The work could help guide the development of future linear particle colliders based on laser-plasma acceleration.
ATAP’s magnet and wakefield work aligns with a key recommendation from the P5 Report, which calls for R&D on next-generation particle colliders to explore new physics at the 10 TeV-per-parton scale, for which no collider design currently exists. This necessitates the development of proton, muon, or wakefield technologies in preparation for a decision on a future collider. Such a machine is essential for enabling particle physicists to probe the structure of fundamental particles and test new theories.
In partnership with colleagues from the Lab’s Nuclear Science Division, BELLA researchers have utilized a compact laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) to enhance our understanding of nuclear-plasma and electro-weak interactions, establishing the effectiveness of ultra-short electron beam pulses from LPAs as a novel method for increasing the population of isomer states—a metastable state of atomic nuclei with different energy and half-life compared to other states of the same nucleus. This work could have far-reaching implications in understanding physics relevant to improving long-term nuclear waste storage and advancing our understanding of heavy element formation in astrophysical contexts.
In a significant leap for quantum technologies, a team of researchers led by ATAP’s Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Program has developed an innovative technique for programming the formation of optical qubits in silicon. This technique could enable scalable quantum computers by utilizing current silicon-based manufacturing methods. The fifth annual report of the National Quantum Initiative, which aims to maintain U.S. leadership in quantum information science, highlighted this development.
In the latest edition of the American Physical Society’s Division of Physics of Beams newsletter, you can read an article I wrote on how the P5 Report outlines a 10-year plan for driving investments in particle accelerator R&D and new accelerator applications for breakthrough science in high-energy and particle physics with additional benefit to medical diagnoses and treatments, materials science, fusion, and many others across science and society.
And congratulations to the latest ATAP honorees. These include Jean-Luc Vay, head of ATAP’s Advanced Modeling Program (AMP), who was among 21 Berkeley Lab staff honored with the Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary of Energy Achievement Award for their leadership in successfully delivering the Exascale Computing Project; Gang Huang and Yilun Xu from our Berkeley Accelerator Controls and Instrumentation Program, who were named the Physical Science Area’s “Inventors/Developers of the Year” for their work on innovative control systems that enhance quantum computing performance; and AMP’s Axel Huebl, who received the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center Early Career Award for Innovative Use of High-Performance Computing.
Written by Carl A. Williams or other authors as credited.
For more information on ATAP News articles, contact caw@lbl.gov.
