SLAC Particle Physics and Astrophysics

The Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory hosts projects that explore the Universe at the smallest and largest scale.

Linac Coherent Light Source

LCLS at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a free-electron X-ray laser that produces ultrafast pulses of X-rays millions of times brighter than even the most powerful synchrotron sources — pulses powerful enough to make images of single molecules.

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource

SSRL at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. SSRL produces extremely bright x-rays used to study our world at the atomic and molecular level.

Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Fermi LAT is an instrument on the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA and SLAC.

POLAR-1/POLAR Array

POLAR-1 targets the detection of both gravitational waves and gravitational lensing signatures in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation. It will be commissioned at the South Pole in the fall of 2012.

Tests of General Relativity

Information on experiments involving relativity, including Gravity Probe B and the Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle (STEP).