The magnet Group of LASA for over 35 years produces superconducting magnets for particle accelerators and detectors, participating as the main protagonist or as a partner to large international projects in the world of frontier research for accelerators.
The group's expertise is for the study, design, construction and testing of superconducting magnets, with consolidated experience on: electromagnetic design, mechanical, cryogenic, diagnostics, quench protection, etc.
Currently the magnet group is involved in important international programs:
- High Luminosity LHC, to increase, since 2021, the luminosity of the LHC beams (co-financed by the EC - FP7 HiLumi).
- Eucard2 (funded by the EC - FP7) for the development of magnets using high-temperature superconductors, for future accelerators.
- EuroCirCol & Future Circolar Collider (FCC), the study of a new Large Hadron Collider (circumference length 100 km) which will continue the high-energy physics after the LHC and HiLumi LHC.
The toroidal magnet of the ATLAS detector
“Phases during assembly of the large toroidal magnet of the ATLAS detector of LHC. The torus is composed of eight superconducting coils, each 25 m long and 5 m wide. The LASA has played a major role in the design, construction and testing of 8 coils. The contracts of most of the conductor and all the reels were assigned to the Italian industry”
The basic and applied research in the field of superconducting magnets is driven by the need to get more and more intense and precise magnetic fields to maintain the trajectory of accelerated particles (protons or ions) to the extreme energies of the great circular accelerators or colliders.
The magnet assembly of LASA is currently composed of 4 researchers, 6 engineers, 1 PhD student and a variable number of students in physics who perform their thesis (experimental or computational) on our research activities. The LASA laboratory hosts important equipment, with a broad spectrum of capabilities, such as measurements of critical currents up to 30,000 A in the presence of high magnetic fields, thermal conductivity measurements and mechanical properties at cryogenic temperatures and much more.
The fast pulsed superconducting dipole
“Preparation phases for the test at LASA of the fast pulsed, 4 m long superconducting dipole”
