SPring-8 (an acronym of Super Photon Ring – 8 GeV) is a

synchrotron radiation Synchrotron radiation (also known as magnetobremsstrahlung) is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when relativistic charged particles are subject to an acceleration perpendicular to their velocity (). It is produced artificially in some types ...

facility located in Sayo Town, Sayo District,

Hyōgo Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to th ...

, Japan, which is the main facility of

Harima Science Garden City Harima Science Garden City(播磨科学公園都市, Harima-Kagaku-Koen-Toshi) is a city constructed by opening up a hilly area in Harima Province, Harima, the southern-west part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture. The city straddles Tatsu ...

. It was developed jointly by

RIKEN is a national scientific research institute in Japan. Founded in 1917, it now has about 3,000 scientists on seven campuses across Japan, including the main site at Wakō, Saitama, Wakō, Saitama Prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Riken is a ...

and the

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute () (JAERI) is a former semi-governmental organization that existed for the purpose of further nuclear power in Japan. It was created in June 1956 by the Atomic Energy Basic Law. It merged with Japan Nucl ...

, and is owned and managed by RIKEN, and run under commission by the

Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in th ...

. The machine consists of a storage ring containing an 8 GeV

electron The electron (, or in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary charge, elementary electric charge. It is a fundamental particle that comprises the ordinary matter that makes up the universe, along with up qua ...

beam. On its path around the storage ring, the beam passes through

insertion device An insertion device (ID) is a component in modern synchrotron light sources, so called because they are "inserted" into accelerator tracks. They are periodic magnetic structures that stimulate highly brilliant, forward-directed synchrotron radi ...

s to produce synchrotron radiation with energies ranging from soft

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

s (300 eV) up to hard X-rays (300 keV). The synchrotron radiation produced at SPring-8 is used for materials analysis and

biochemical Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

characterization by many Japanese manufacturers and universities. Together with the

Advanced Photon Source The Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (in Lemont, Illinois) is a storage-ring-based high-energy X-ray light source facility. It is one of five X-ray light sources owned and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office ...

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

and the

Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in the United States, the

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility The European Synchrotron (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 19 countries (13 member countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switz ...

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

, France, and

PETRA Petra (; "Rock"), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu (Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: or , *''Raqēmō''), is an ancient city and archaeological site in southern Jordan. Famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit systems, P ...

DESY DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (English: ''German Electron Synchrotron''), is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to ...

in Hamburg, Germany, it is one of the five large (beam energy greater than 5 GeV) synchrotron radiation facilities in the world.

Research

The Laser Electron Photon Experiment at SPring-8 (LEPS) is an experiment producing high-energy (

GeV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum. When us ...

)

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless particles that can ...

beams by the

inverse Compton scattering Compton scattering (or the Compton effect) is the quantum theory of high frequency photons scattering following an interaction with a charged particle, usually an electron. Specifically, when the photon hits electrons, it releases loosely bound e ...

of photons upon the 8 GeV

s of the SPring-8 synchrotron. These are then used for various

particle physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of Elementary particle, fundamental particles and fundamental interaction, forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the s ...

experiments on

hadron In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced , the name is derived . They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electri ...

s. The first beam was produced in 1999, and data-taking commenced in 2000. The collaboration is known for their reports of a

resonance Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximu ...

which they interpret as a

pentaquark A pentaquark is a human-made subatomic particle, consisting of four quarks and one antiquark bound together; they are not known to occur naturally, or exist outside of experiments specifically carried out to create them. As quarks have a bar ...

candidate made of two

up quark The up quark or u quark (symbol: u) is the lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle, and a significant constituent of matter. It, along with the down quark, forms the neutrons (one up quark, two down quarks) and protons (two up quark ...

s, two

down quark The down quark (symbol: d) is a type of elementary particle, and a major constituent of matter. The down quark is the second-lightest of all quarks, and combines with other quarks to form composite particles called hadrons. Down quarks are most ...

s and a

strange antiquark The strange quark or s quark (from its symbol, s) is the third lightest of all quarks, a type of elementary particle. Strange quarks are found in subatomic particles called hadrons. Examples of hadrons containing strange quarks include kaons (), ...

(uudd). The 2008 ''

Review of Particle Physics A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indi ...

'' of the

Particle Data Group The Particle Data Group (PDG) is an international collaboration of particle physicists that compiles and reanalyzes published results related to the properties of particles and fundamental interactions. It also publishes reviews of theoretical ...

ruled out the existence of this resonance, but new reports from LEPS indicate that the resonance could be seen in the → channel.

Use by police

The materials analysis at SPring-8 can be used as forensics to identify substances for police investigations by detecting the types and combinations of impurities. For example, in the 1998 Wakayama curry poisoning incident, the arsenic used as the poisoning agent in a communal pot of curry contained trace impurities of bismuth and antimony, which were also present in arsenic found in the perpetrator's home. In another case, evidence from SPring-8 led to the arrest of three former members of the

Aum Shinrikyo , better known by their former name , is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been respo ...

cult suspected in the 1995 shooting of Takaji Kunimatsu, Japan's head of the National Police Agency at the time. Like the curry poisoning incident, impurities in the metal traces in the coat of a suspect were matched to impurities in the gun used in the shooting.

In popular culture

In the '' Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG''

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series, SPring-8 is mentioned several times, and is the facility where the character Ishikawa takes a sample of weapons-grade

Plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...

to be analyzed to verify its source. In '' Salvation of a Saint'', a piece of evidence is sent to SPring-8 for analysis.

References

External links

SPring-8 website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring-8 Synchrotron radiation facilities Buildings and structures in Hyōgo Prefecture Science and technology in Japan Riken Harima Science Garden City Sayō, Hyōgo

Research

Use by police

In popular culture

See also

References

External links