The anti-particles of electrons are called positrons. They can be created by hitting a target of heavy metal, such as tungsten, with high-current, high-energy electrons. However, in addition to positrons, the target generates almost equal amounts of electrons, simultaneously caught by electric and magnetic forces in the positron capture section that follows the target.
Electrons and photons are separated by magnetic force just after the capture phase. It is challenging to detect positrons and electrons in the capturing portion simultaneously. Three factors make it difficult to see them clearly:
- A radiation-hard environment.
- A lack of room to place beam monitors.
- The need to distinguish between positrons and electrons in a short period of time.
- They are generated in large quantities in the “SuperKEKB B-Factory” (SuperKEKB), where they are crushed into electrons at a brightness that sets world records. Physicists look into the mysteries of matter, antimatter imbalance, and traces of other exotic particles outside the standard model by examining the hundreds of decay patterns of B mesons and anti-B mesons in these encounters.
- One of the important components of this experiment is raising the positron intensity to increase the collision rate.A team led by Prof. Tsuyoshi Suwada of KEK successfully installed a new type of beam monitor into the SuperKEKB positron source
