The CERN SPS proton–antiproton collider

One of CERN's most ambitious and successful projects was the search for the intermediate bosons, W and Z [1]. The accelerator part of the project relied on a number of innovations in accelerator physics and technology. The invention of the method of stochastic cooling and the extension by many orders of magnitude beyond the initial proof of principle demonstration allowed the construction of the Antiproton Accumulator. Major modifications to the 26 GeV PS complex and the conversion of the 300 GeV SPS, which had just started up as an accelerator, to a collider were required. The SPS collider had to master the beam–beam effect far beyond limits reached before and had to function in a tight symbiosis with the UA1 and UA2 experiments.