Partner countries of FAIR accelerator meet in Darmstadt and approve developments

Following the FAIR Council’s decision in late September 2015 on the overall scope of the FAIR facility, the management team in Darmstadt was able to begin intensive work on defining the orientation and framework conditions of the FAIR project.

The result is a new overall structure that merges the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and FAIR GmbH at organisational level. An important part of this process is establishing a specific project structure for realising the FAIR facility that integrates the engineering and building work, the development and construction of the accelerator, and the scientific experiments themselves. The research objectives were also defined and ranked.

The management team presented the research programme for the coming years at the Darmstadt site. This was met with great approval by the FAIR Council and the GSI supervisory board. The programme represents a major step forward with regard to the future research at FAIR and offers excellent research opportunities in the period until FAIR goes into operation.

Scientists are already able to make use of the existing GSI accelerators, which have undergone significant improvements for their future use as pre-accelerators for FAIR and will receive further technical upgrades.

Scientists also already have access to the first measuring devices made especially for FAIR: these detectors are high-tech developments that form the basis for globally unique experiments. The promise of exciting new research possibilities is already enabling researchers to generate enthusiasm for FAIR among junior scientists.

FAIR will be one of the largest and most complex accelerator facilities in the world. The centrepiece of the facility is a ring accelerator with a circumference of 1,100 metres. Engineers and scientists are working in international partnership to advance new technological developments in a number of areas – such as information technology and superconductor technology.

Around 3,000 scientists from all over the world will be able to conduct top-level research at FAIR. Their outstanding experiments will generate new fundamental insights into the structure of matter and the development of the universe.

Alongside Germany, FAIR’s partner countries are Finland, France, India, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia and Sweden. The United Kingdom is an associated partner.

http://www.fair-center.de/index.php?id=1&L=1 More about the new international accelerator facility FAIR