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CERN Develops Innovative Superconducting Magnet Prototype for Particle Physics and Medicine
What connects rope winding with oversized pasta shapes? The unique design of a new superconducting magnet prototype at CERN, affectionately dubbed Fusillo due to its resemblance to traditional Italian pasta.
The CERN team initially pursued this technology to enhance compact particle accelerators, notably for a new storage ring associated with the ISOLDE experiment. Yet, the potential applications for this technology extend significantly into the medical realm, particularly in advancing hadron therapy for cancer treatment.
Hadron therapy is an innovative form of radiotherapy that employs beams of protons or light ions to target cancerous tissues. Unlike conventional X-rays, which disperse energy along their path, hadron therapy delivers concentrated energy at specific points. This precision results in reduced radiation damage to adjacent healthy tissues while permitting the safe administration of higher doses to tumors, ultimately leading to more efficient tumor destruction. The minimized impact on surrounding organs translates to lower toxicity, enhancing the overall experience for patients during and following their treatment.
Despite the growing popularity of hadron therapy, only over 100 specialized facilities exist globally, concentrated mainly in Europe, Asia, and the United States. This limited availability is primarily due to the prohibitive costs of the necessary equipment, including high-current magnets that often require elaborate helium cooling systems. In contrast, regions such as Africa lack facilities altogether, and South America has only one in the early stages of development.
The Fusillo magnet prototype promises to change this landscape. Designed as a Curved-Canted-Cosine-Theta (CCCT) dipole demonstrator, it offers numerous benefits: its operational current is significantly lower, making it more affordable and compact compared to traditional counterparts. The simplicity of its design minimizes the number of components required, which should ease manufacturing and maintenance processes. Additionally, Fusillo is anticipated to utilize dry cooling methods without relying on liquid helium, setting a new standard for superconducting magnets.
Fusillo is engineered using a cable formed from two nested coils wound in an innovative manner. The inner coil is intentionally angled in the opposite direction to its outer counterpart, working together to establish a dipole field within the apparatus. This novel approach to dipole field creation, while theoretically established for a long time, has only recently gained feasibility due to advancements in computational design.
CERN’s Ariel Haziot and his team have devised a technique to produce the magnet using a rope-like assembly of multiple insulated wires, which are carefully wound around a metal former. The configuration allows electricity to cycle extensively within the coils, achieving a functional magnet strength of 3 T while consuming only 300 A of current.
The development of a Canted-Cosine-Theta (CCT) electromagnetic system has been an ongoing project at CERN since 2014, contributing to the infrastructure of the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Haziot’s latest undertaking to create the curved CCT demonstrator has taken approximately two and a half years.
The assembly process for the Fusillo magnet is nearing completion, with final preparations under way for full-scale testing scheduled for April. This phase will involve rigorous comparisons of performance data against simulations to chart the project’s future trajectory.
Once operational, magnets like Fusillo are expected to enhance the new storage ring for HIE-ISOLDE within five years and may subsequently be adapted for diverse applications in hadron therapy, thus broadening access to advanced cancer treatments.
Citation: CERN’s curved magnet prototype promises advancements in particle physics and medicine (2025, February 24) retrieved 24 February 2025 from phys.org
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phys.org