New ALPHA-2 magnet
On 21 June, members of the ALPHA collaboration celebrated the handover of the first solenoid designed for the ALPHA-2 experiment. The magnet has since been successfully installed and is working well.
Khalid Mansoor, Sumera Yamin and Jeffrey Hangst in front of the new ALPHA-2 solenoid.
“This was the first of three identical solenoids that will be installed between now and September, as the rest of the ALPHA-2 device is installed and commissioned,” explains ALPHA spokesperson Jeffrey Hangst. “These magnets are designed to allow us to transfer particles - antiprotons, electrons and positrons - between various parts of the new ALPHA-2 device by controlling the transverse size of the particle bunch that is being transferred.”
Sumera Yamin and Khalid Mansoor, two Pakistani scientists from the National Centre for Physics in Islamabad, came to CERN in February specifically to design and manufacture these magnets. “We had the chance to work on actual equipment – using software, manufacturing and winding the coil, and assembling and testing the solenoids in workshops and labs,” says Sumera. “It was challenging and very interesting to go through the whole process,” adds Khalid.
A second type of solenoid will be manufactured later this summer, completing the ALPHA-2 magnet infrastructure.
