Superconducting dipole accelerator magnet

A Superconducting dipole accelerator magnet is a type of magnet designed to generate strong magnetic fields for guiding and focusing charged particle beams in particle accelerators. These magnets are crucial for the operation of high-energy physics experiments and are typically made from superconducting materials like NbTi or Nb3Sn, which can carry large currents without resistance when cooled to very low temperatures, typically using liquid helium.

Key specifications for these magnets include the ability to produce high magnetic fields, often in excess of several Tesla, with high homogeneity over the volume of the particle beam. For instance, a large-bore 10 T superconducting dipole designed for the CERN cable test facility has an aperture of 88 mm and is composed of two two-layer poles wound with NbTi cables, which are cooled to 1.9 K to achieve magnetic inductions close to 10 T.

The design of these magnets is complex and must accommodate the dynamic conditions within accelerators. They often feature a coil design that is prestressed to maintain performance under varying thermal conditions, with the coil prestress variations kept within 20 MPa between warm and cold conditions .The magnets are also designed to minimize AC losses, which are important for the cryogenic cooling of superconducting coils during operation and quenching, contributing to the heat load on the magnet cooling system.