Technical Note These images were rendered using Real 3D and any necessary post processing was accomplished using ImageFX.
This is a stylized overview of
the particle accelerator,
CESR.
The image is used to denote information
of use to accelerator physicists.
Purpose: Give a quick introduction to CESR and show its function.
Image 1: Exterior shot which shows the
Synchrotron
in the right foreground, the
Storage Ring
to the left, and the
CLEO II detector in the center of the image sticking up behind the Synchrotron.
Technical note: The computer model of CESR is completely accurate.
Every component of the model is in the exact spot that the actual component
sits. The shape of the components was simplified to improve
visual clarity. To get this accuracy, I used Real3D's built in
programming language to write a program which read in a file containing the
positions of the components, and then generated the model from that file.
Image 2: Inside the Storage Ring's beam pipe. The glowing purple
ellipse represents a beam of billions of
positrons (the electron's anti-particle) which has just passed the camera and
is heading down the pipe to eventually collide with a beam of electrons.
Technical note:I added welding seams to the pipe (seen in the
image as a gray ellipse surrounding the pipe) to enhance the sense of motion
as the camera moved down the pipe.
Purpose: Show the physical relationship between the three components of CESR and the CLEO II detector. In the video, each of the sections lights up when the announcer talks about it.
Image #1: The Linear Accelerator. Creates the electron and positron beams, begins their acceleration, and injects them into the Synchrotron.
Image #2: The Synchrotron. As the beam goes round and round it is accelerated to its final energy and then is injected into the Storage Ring.
Image #3: The Storage Ring. The positron beam circles clockwise and the electron beam circles counter-clockwise inside the beam pipe. The two beams are allowed to collide inside the CLEO detector.
Image #4: The CLEO II Detector Tracks and measures all of the particles that are created when the electron and positron beams collide.
Purpose:Show the beam as it comes out of the electron gun and then watch the beam get compressed in the prebuncher from a length of three feet down to the thickness of a dime.
Image #1: This is a close up of the electron gun, with the electron beam (blue) just emerging.
Image #2: This frame is later in the animation, where the camera has moved back and to the left to show the beam as it is compressed in the prebuncher.
Purpose:Demonstrate how the beams are accelerated using a Radio Frequency Cavity.
Image :
This is a cut away of one of the eight Acceleration Cavities in the Linear
Accelerator. The Acceleration Cavity is composed
of cavities, where the powerful electric field from a radio wave
(depicted as the purple cones)
oscillates back and forth. When a beam (the blue sphere) enters the cavity,
the electric field accelerates it in the same direction that the field is pointing.
Technical Note:
This frame is composed of three separate images.
Purpose:Give a transition from the Linear Accelerator to the Synchrotron.
Image : The camera is above the linear accelerator (the components forming a straight line directly under the camera). Directly ahead, you see how the beams get into the synchrotron, the two turns are called snouts. The electron beam is deflected into the left snout by a powerful magnet (dark blue crescent), and the positron beam is deflected to the right by the same magnet.
Purpose:Give a sense of scale to the accelerator by comparing the relative energy an electron would get if it were accelerated by a battery, a T.V. or the Synchrotron.
Image #1: Shows an electron being accelerated between two plates. The plates have a voltage difference of 1 volt. The amount of energy that the electron gets by going from one plate to the other is 1 electron Volt (eV).
Image #2: Inside a television, the electron beam gains an energy of 20,000 eV.
Image #3:
The synchrotron elevates the beams to 5 Billion electron volts.
Technical Note:
Each of these frames was formed from overlaying an animated image on top
of a static image of CESR. This saved a great deal of CPU time.
Purpose:Provide a transition from the Synchrotron to the Storage Ring.
Image: The Synchrotron (left side) is connected to the Storage Ring (right side) by the transfer line (pipe in center). In the animation, we begin from this view then swoop into the Storage Ring to see the counter rotating electron and positron beams.
Purpose:Show how positrons (the electron's anti-matter partner) are made.
Image #1: The electron beam (glowing blue sphere) just before it strikes a heavy metal target placed in its path.
Image #2: When the electron beam struck the target, it created many electron(blue)/positron(pink) pairs. These particles are then collected and accelerated down the rest of the Linear Accelerator. The acceleration cavities are adjusted so that only the positrons can make it all the way to the end.
Technical Note:The shower of electrons and positrons was created using Real3D's built in particle animation system. When the electron beam struck the target, the beam was removed from the animation and all the electrons and positrons were created. Each electron and positron was given a random velocity and then Real 3D moved each particle according to its velocity. Once the particles moved beyond a certain distance, they were removed from the animation.
Purpose:Cut open the CLEO II detector to see the layers of different sub-detectors inside of it.