SuperKEKB


SuperKEKB is a particle collider located at KEK in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. SuperKEKB collides electrons with positrons at the centre-of-momentum energy close to the mass of the Υ resonance making it a second-generation B-factory for the Belle II experiment. The accelerator is an upgrade to the KEKB accelerator, providing approximately 40 times higher luminosity, due mostly to superconducting quadrupole focusing magnets. The accelerator achieved "first turns" in February 2016. First collisions occurred on 26 April 2018. At 20:34 on 15th June 2020, SuperKEKB achieved the world’s highest instantaneous luminosity for a colliding-beam accelerator, setting a record of 2.22×1034 cm−2s−1.

Description

The SuperKEKB design reuses many components from KEKB. Under normal operation, SuperKEKB collides electrons at 7 GeV with positrons at 4 GeV. The centre-of-momentum energy of the collisions is therefore at the mass of the Υ resonance. The accelerator will also perform short runs at energies of other Υ resonances, in order to obtain samples of other B mesons and baryons. The asymmetry in the beam energy provides a relativistic Lorentz boost to the B meson particles produced in the collision. The direction of the higher-energy beam determines the 'forward' direction, and the affects the design of much of the Belle II detector.
As with KEKB, SuperKEKB consists of two storage rings: one for the high-energy electron beam and one for the lower energy positron beam. The accelerator has a circumference of 3016m with four straight sections and experimental halls in the centre of each, named "Tsukuba", "Oho", "Fuji", and "Nikko". The Belle II experiment is located at the single interaction point in Tsukuba Hall.

Luminosity

The target luminosity for SuperKEKB is 8×1035 cm−2s−1, this is 40 times larger than the luminosity at KEKB. The improvement is mostly due to a so-called 'nano-beam' scheme, originally proposed for the cancelled SuperB experiment. In the nano-beam scheme at SuperKEKB, the beams are squeezed in the vertical direction and the crossing angle is increased, which reduces the area of the crossing. The luminosity is further increased by a factor of two, due to a higher beam current than KEKB. The focus and crossing angle is achieved by two new superconducting quadrupole magnets at the interaction point that were installed in February 2017.