The Legacy of the Tevatron in the Area of Accelerator Science

Abstract

For more than 25 years, the Tevatron was the highest-energy accelerator in the world. It provided the first access to particle collisions beyond 1 TeV and achieved an ultimate performance that was a factor of 400 beyond the original design goals. This article reviews the many formidable challenges that were overcome, and the knowledge gained, in building, operating, and improving the Tevatron during its lifetime. These challenges included the first operation of an accelerator based on superconducting magnets; production of antiprotons in sufficient numbers to support a usable luminosity; management of beam–beam, intrabeam, and other collective effects; novel manipulations of the beam longitudinal phase space; and development and application of a wide variety of innovative technologies. These achievements established the legacy of the Tevatron as the progenitor of all subsequently constructed high-energy hadron colliders.