DESY
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The DESY (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, "German Electron Synchrotron") is a German physics research institute. It is considered to be a major European center for particle physics and synchrotron radiation research. It has two main sites - the first in Hamburg, where around 2000 people work and the second in Zeuthen, where around 200 people are employed.
DESY is a member of the Helmholtz Research Associaction and was founded in Hamburg on December 18, 1959. It is the largest physics institute in Europe, outside of CERN in Geneva. It is primarily financed by the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres of which DESY is a member of. DESY was previously financed directly by the ministry; now it is indirectly financed by the ministry, as the association is funded by the ministry. The association now directly determines the funding for DESY.
DESY's purpose (taken from the DESY webpage) is:
Specific research in the natural sciences with special emphasis on:
- development, construction and operation of accelerator facilities
- particle physics (investigation of the fundamental properties of matter and forces)
- research with photons (investigations in all fields of natural sciences using a special light generated at accelerators.)
DESY is situated atop a particle accelerator called HERA, which runs beneath the city of Hamburg. There are three large experiments on the HERA ring: ZEUS, H1 and HERMES. A fourth, called HERA-B was discontinued in February 2003. There are other, smaller accelerators at DESY, but none that can match the power of HERA, which accelerates electrons to 27.5 GeV, making it the most powerful accelerator in Europe at the time of writing. (CERN is still being upgraded.) DESY also hosts HASYLAB - a collaboration that focuses research on Synchrotrons.
Currently there is an undergoing project in DESY for the development of a new Particle Accelerator. A linear collider called TESLA.
DESY has a large international population - scientists based in the following countries work at DESY:
Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, The Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and United States of America.
The main scientific achievement at DESY was the discovery of the gluon at the PETRA particle accelerator in 1979.
External links
- http://www.desy.de - Official homepage (http://www.desy.de), available in English and German
- http://www.helmholtz.de - Official homepage of the Helmholtz Association (http://www.helmholtz.de)