J-PARC

J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) is a high intensity proton accelerator facility. It is a joint project between KEK and JAEA and is located at the Tokai campus of JAEA. J-PARC aims for the frontier in materials and life sciences, and nuclear and particle physics. J-PARC uses high intensity proton beams to create high intensity secondary beams of neutrons, hadrons, and neutrinos.

Components

J-PARC includes three main parts: the 400 MeV proton Linear accelerator, the 3 GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), and the 50 GeV Main Ring (MR) synchrotron. There are two main experimental areas: the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility, where the proton beam from the RCS is used to create beams of either neutrons or muons for further study, and the hadron area, where the beam from the main ring is used to create heavy hadronic particles such as pions and kaons. The main ring beam is also used to create neutrino beams for analysis at the Kamioka detector, located approximately 300 km to the west. A planned future upgrade of the linear accelerator to 600 MeV will also allow for research into accelerator-driven nuclear waste transmutation.