The Tevatron and Generation Matters

Great ideas (cascaded accelerators, separate function magnets, superconducting magnets) enable the third generation of proton synchrotrons (Main ring at Fermilab, SPS at CERN). The fifth quark, called ’bottom’ is discovered at Fermilab. The Intersecting Storage Ring at CERN is the first proton-proton collider where much of the technology was developed to make later colliders possible. In particular, the great idea to use stochastic cooling to accumulate sufficient numbers of antiprotons makes operation of proton-antiproton colliders possible. First the SPS is converted to a proton-antiproton collider and discovers the Z and W bosons as the force-carriers of the weak force. The Tevatron at Fermilab discovers the sixths quark, called ’top’, and the tau neutrino, which completes the third generation of particles.