
Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) has been steadily improving the performance of its flagship electron-positron collider, SuperKEKB, since it produced its first electron-positron collisions in April 2018. At 20:34 on 15th June 2020, SuperKEKB achieved the world’s highest instantaneous luminosity for a colliding-beam accelerator, setting a record of 2.22×1034cm-2s-1. Previously, the KEKB collider, which was SuperKEKB’s predecessor and was operated by KEK from 1999 to 2010, had achieved the world’s highest luminosity, reaching 2.11×1034cm-2s-1. KEKB’s record was surpassed in 2018, when the LHC proton-proton collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) overtook the KEKB luminosity at 2.14×1034cm-2s-1. SuperKEKB’s recent achievement returns the title of world’s highest luminosity colliding-beam accelerator to KEK.(*)
(*)The current record is 2.40×1034cm-2s-1, obtained at 00:53 JST on June 21st. —more