Cosmotron

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Built at Brookhaven National Laboratory, the Cosmotron was the first accelerator in the world to send particles to energies in the billion electron volt, or GeV, region. Its construction was approved by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1948, it reached its full energy in 1953, and it continued running until 1968. It was the first accelerator to allow the extraction of the particle beam for experiments located physically outside the accelerator. It was used to observe a number of mesons previously seen only in cosmic rays, and to make the first discoveries of heavy, unstable particles (called V particles at the time). The Cosmotron injection system began with the Van de Graaf accelerator tank seen in the foreground at left. Protons were injected from the tank into the accelerator via a vacuum pipe. The operation of the cosmotron ceased on 12/31/66.

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