Bruno Touschek and AdA: from Frascati to Orsay. In memory of Bruno Touschek, who passed away 40 years ago, on May 25th, 1978

TL;DR

This paper recounts the historical development of the first electron-positron collisions using the AdA storage ring, highlighting the collaboration and technical achievements that led to this milestone in particle physics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical account of the collaboration between Frascati and Orsay laboratories and the technical journey of AdA, the first storage ring for electron-positron collisions.

Findings

First electron-positron collisions observed in laboratory

Successful transfer of AdA from Frascati to Orsay in 1962

Documentation of collaboration and technical challenges

Abstract

The first electron-positron collisions in a laboratory were observed in 1963-1964 at the Laboratoire de l'Acc\'el\'erateur Lin\'eaire d'Orsay, in France, with the storage ring AdA, which had been constructed in the Italian National Laboratories of Frascati in 1960, under the guidance of Bruno Touschek. The making of the collaboration between the two laboratories included visits between Orsay and Frascati, letters between Rome and Paris, and culminated with AdA leaving Frascati on July 4th, 1962 to cross the Alps on a truck, with the doughnut degassed to $10^{-9}$mmHg through pumps powered by sets of heavy batteries. This epoch-making trip and the exchanges which preceded it are described through unpublished documents and interviews with some of its protagonists, Carlo Bernardini, Francois Lacoste, Jacques Ha\"issinski, Maurice L\'evy.