High-energy nuclear collisions create an energy density similar to that of the Universe microseconds after the Big Bang; in both cases, matter and antimatter are formed with comparable abundance. However, the relatively short-lived expansion in nuclear collisions allows antimatter to decouple quickly from matter, and avoid annihilation. Thus, a high-energy accelerator of heavy nuclei provides an efficient means of producing and studying antimatter. The antimatter helium-4 nucleus (4He), also known as the anti-α (α), consists of two antiprotons and two antineutrons (baryon number B = -4). It has not been observed previously, although the α-particle was identified a century ago by Rutherford and is present in cosmic radiation at the ten per cent level. Antimatter nuclei with B < -1 have been observed only as rare products of interactions at particle accelerators, where the rate of antinucleus production in high-energy collisions decreases by a factor of about 1,000 with each additional antinucleon. Here we report the observation of 4He, the heaviest observed antinucleus to date. In total, 18 4He counts were detected at the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC; ref. 6) in 10(9) recorded gold-on-gold (Au+Au) collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 200 GeV and 62 GeV per nucleon-nucleon pair. The yield is consistent with expectations from thermodynamic and coalescent nucleosynthesis models, providing an indication of the production rate of even heavier antimatter nuclei and a benchmark for possible future observations of 4He in cosmic radiation.

High brightness, high charge electron beams are critical for a number of advanced accelerator applications. The initial emittance of the electron beam, which is determined by the mean transverse energy (MTE) and laser spot size, is one of the most important parameters determining the beam quality. The bialkali photocathodes illuminated by a visible laser have the advantages of high quantum efficiency (QE) and low MTE. Furthermore, Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) guns can operate in the continuous wave (CW) mode at high accelerating gradients, e.g. with significant reduction of the laser spot size at the photocathode. Combining the bialkali photocathode with the SRF gun enables generation of high charge, high brightness, and possibly high average current electron beams. However, integrating the high QE semiconductor photocathode into the SRF guns has been challenging. In this article, we report on the development of bialkali photocathodes for successful operation in the SRF gun with months-long lifetime while delivering CW beams with nano-coulomb charge per bunch. This achievement opens a new era for high charge, high brightness CW electron beams.

We present the results of an analysis of charged particle pseudorapidity distributions in the central region in collisions of a Au projectile with Al, Cu, Au, and U targets at an incident momentum of 10.8 GeV/c per nucleon. The pseudorapidity distributions are presented as a function of transverse energy produced in the target or central pseudorapidity regions. The correlation between charged multiplicity and transverse energy measured in the central region, as well as the target and projectile regions, is also presented. We give results for transverse energy per charged particle as a function of pseudorapidity and centrality.PACS number(s): 25.75.+r, 13.85.t

In this paper, we explore a method to manipulate low energy electron bunches in a space charge dominated regime, and we use this method to design low energy linac bunch compressors to compress electron bunches in a space charge dominated regime. In the method, we use the space charge effects instead of avoiding them; i.e., we use the space charge forces to generate the required energy chirp instead of the ordinary method which uses the rf accelerating system to generate the chirp. We redefine the concepts of the dispersion function and beta functions in a space charge dominated regime to guide the optimization. Using this method, we study the low energy (5-22 MeV) linac bunch compressor design to produce short (∼150 fs) and small size (∼30 μm) bunches for the electron beam slicing project. The low energy linac bunch compressors work in a space charge dominated regime, and the bunches at the downstream of the gun have a negative energy chirp due to the space charge effects. To provide compression for the negative energy chirped bunch, we design a positive R 56 dispersive section using a four-dipole chicane with several quadrupole magnets. We have designed low energy linac bunch compressors with different photocathode rf guns. For example, one linac bunch compressor with the BNL photocathode electron rf gun has achieved a low energy bunch with the 166 fs rms bunch length, 28 and 31 μm rms beam size in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively, at 5 MeV with 50 pC charge. Another example with LBNL's very-high frequency gun has achieved a low energy bunch with the 128 fs rms bunch length, 42 and 25 μm rms beam size in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively, at 22 MeV with 200 pC charge.