The first electrons flew by

While waiting for a sharp start of the new version of the Large Hadron Collider, we can warm up with the news about the first particle accelerations in the Polish accelerator - the SOLARIS synchrotron, which is being built on the campus of the Jagiellonian University. Electron beams have already been emitted in the device as part of the first tests.

The SOLARIS synchrotron is the most modern device of this type in Poland. It generates beams of electromagnetic radiation ranging from infrared to X-rays. Currently, scientists observe the electron beam immediately before entering the first accelerator structure. The beam emitted from the electron gun has an energy of 1,8 MeV.

In 1998. scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Jagiellonian University and AGH have put forward an initiative to create a National Synchrotron Radiation Center and to build a synchrotron. In 2006, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education received an application for the construction of a synchrotron radiation source in Poland and the creation of the National Synchrotron Radiation Center. In 2010, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Jagiellonian University for co-financing and implementation of the synchrotron construction project under the Operational Program Innovative Economy 2007-2013. The synchrotron in Krakow is being built in close cooperation with the MAX-lab synchrotron center in Sweden (Lund). In 2009, the Jagiellonian University signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish MAX-lab at the University of Lund. Under this agreement, two twin centers of synchrotron radiation are being built in Poland and Sweden.