DESY
DESY, short for Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, is a national research centre for fundamental science located in Hamburg and Zeuthen near Berlin in Germany. It operates particle accelerators used to investigate the structure, dynamics and function of matter, and conducts a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary scientific research in four main areas: particle and high energy physics; photon science; astroparticle physics; and the development, construction and operation of particle accelerators. Its name refers to its first project, an electron synchrotron. DESY is publicly financed by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal States of Hamburg and Brandenburg and is a member of the Helmholtz Association.
Functions and mission
DESY's function is to conduct fundamental research for solely civil and peaceful purposes. It specialises in particle accelerator development, construction and operation, particle physics, astroparticle physics and photon science research to explore the fundamental relationships between the structure, dynamics and function of matter. In cooperation with its partner organisations, its photon science research spans surface physics, material science, chemistry, molecular biology, geophysics and medicine through the use of synchrotron radiation and free-electron lasers.In addition to operating its own large accelerator facilities, DESY participates in many major international research projects, for example the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser in Germany, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, the Belle II experiment in Japan, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole and the worldwide Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory.
Sites
DESY operates in two locations. The primary location is in the Bahrenfeld quarter of Hamburg. In 1992, DESY expanded to a second site in Zeuthen near Berlin.Hamburg
The DESY Hamburg site is located in the quarter Bahrenfeld, in the west of the city in the district of Altona. Its main accelerators are located here.Zeuthen
Following German reunification, DESY expanded to a second site in Zeuthen near Berlin. In 1939, the German Postal Ministry founded a nuclear physics laboratory there. After World War II, the laboratory was first named "Institute X", to become the Institute for High Energy Physics, the high-energy physics laboratory of the German Democratic Republic belonging to the Academy of Sciences of the GDR. The institute was merged with DESY on 1 January 1992. It focuses on parallel computing for theoretical particle physics, the development and construction of electron sources for X-ray lasers as well as astroparticle physics with a focus on gamma-ray and neutrino astronomy.Employees and training
DESY employs about 3,000 staff members from more than 60 nations. Most staff work at the Hamburg site, with about 270 at the Zeuthen site. These numbers include more than 130 trainees in various industrial-technical professions and about 500 PhD students and postdocs supervised by DESY. In addition, there are numerous master students from various universities.Budget and financing
The research centre is a foundation under civil law financed by public funds. In 2024, DESY had an annual budget of about 359 million euros. In addition, it had a project funding income of about 32 million euros. 90% of the annual budget is provided by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and 10% respectively by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the German federal state of Brandenburg.Particle accelerators and other facilities
DESY's accelerators were not all built at once, but were rather added one by one to meet the growing demand of the scientists for higher and higher energies to gain more insight into particle structures. In the course of the construction of new accelerators, the older ones were converted to pre-accelerators or to sources for synchrotron radiation for laboratories with new research tasks.DESY
The DESY synchrotron has been in operation since 1964. Its circumference is 300 m. It was used until 1978 for particle physics experiments and first measurements with synchrotron radiation. Since then, rebuilt and upgraded several times, it has served as a pre-accelerator and as a test beam facility delivering high-energy particle beams for testing detector systems.DORIS
The DORIS storage ring operated from 1974 to 2013. It had a circumference of 289 m. Until 1992, it collided electrons with positrons for particle physics experiments. From 1980 on, the synchrotron radiation generated by DORIS was used for photon science experiments; from 1993 to 2012, the storage ring served exclusively as a synchrotron radiation source. The particle physics experiment OLYMPUS then ran in 2012 before DORIS was shut down at the beginning of 2013.PETRA
The PETRA storage ring has been in operation since 1978. It has a circumference of 2,304 m. Until 1986, electrons and positrons collided in PETRA for research in particle physics. From 1990 on, PETRA served as a pre-accelerator for the HERA storage ring, and from 1995 on also as a synchrotron radiation source with two test experimental stations. Since 2009, the facility has been delivering hard X-ray beams of very high brilliance to over 40 experimental stations under the name PETRA III.HERA
The HERA storage ring operated from 1992 to 2007. It has a circumference of 6,336 m. It was DESY's largest ring accelerator and Germany's largest research instrument to date. Until 2007, HERA was the only storage ring facility in the world to enable collisions of electrons or positrons with protons for particle physics for studies of the inner structure of the proton.FLASH
The free-electron laser FLASH has been in operation since 2000. It has a length of 315 m. It is based on a test facility for superconducting accelerator technology built in 1997 for the TESLA project and has served as a user facility for experiments with the generated FEL radiation since 2005. FLASH provides ultrashort light pulses in the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray range for seven experimental stations and is also used as a test facility for the development of accelerator and FEL technologies.European XFEL accelerator
DESY operates the 1.7 km superconducting linear accelerator of the European XFEL X-ray free-electron laser, an international research facility that delivers ultrashort light pulses in the high-energy X-ray range.PITZ
Since 2001, the DESY site in Zeuthen has been home to the photoinjector test facility PITZ, a linear accelerator used to study, optimise and prepare the electron sources for FLASH and for the European XFEL.Other facilities
The building of the former DORIS storage ring now houses the SINBAD accelerator complex with various infrastructures for accelerator R&D: the linear accelerator ARES for accelerator research with ultrashort electron pulses for medical purposes, the AXSIS facility for terahertz-driven acceleration to generate ultrashort X-ray pulses for materials science or medical imaging, and the high-power laser KALDERA for research into laser-driven plasma acceleration.The LUX facility is also used for research into laser-driven plasma acceleration, the FLASHForward experiment at FLASH for electron-beam-driven plasma acceleration. The relativistic electron beam source REGAE generates ultrashort electron pulses for time-resolved diffraction experiments.
The tunnel of the former HERA storage ring now houses the ALPS II experiment, which uses converted superconducting dipole magnets of the HERA proton ring to study extremely light particles.
Computing
DESY provides extensive storage and computing capacity for research in all its divisions within the Interdisciplinary Data and Analysis Facility. The Maxwell HPC Cluster, a high-performance computing platform, serves photon science analysis and accelerator science and operations. As part of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, DESY operates a Tier-2 computer centre that offers computing and storage systems for the ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. In addition, the DESY grid infrastructure is used by other experiments such as Belle II or IceCube. It is complemented by the National Analysis Facility for particle physics data analysis. IDAF storage is provided using DCache and General Parallel File System.Research areas
Research at DESY is organised into four divisions: Accelerators, Photon Science, Particle Physics and Astroparticle Physics.The Accelerator division develops fundamental technologies for the accelerator facilities that DESY and its partners use in their scientific mission. In addition to the operation and further development of existing facilities, essential activities include research into new accelerator concepts, in particular plasma wakefield acceleration, and the improvement of superconducting radio frequency accelerator technology.
In the Photon Science division, photons are being used to study the structure, dynamics and function of matter. To this end, the division develops, builds and operates beamlines and experiments at the DESY light sources PETRA III and FLASH. Every year, more than 3,000 researchers – most of them from universities, but also from non-university research institutions and industry – from over 40 countries conduct experiments at the light sources and in the laboratories at DESY. The research spectrum ranges from basic research to applied research and industrial collaborations in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, life sciences, earth sciences, materials research as well as the study of cultural heritage.
The Particle Physics division is involved in the large-scale experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva. As part of the international collaborations that run the ATLAS and CMS experiments, DESY contributes to many developments at the LHC, from hardware design and data analysis to preparations for the planned upgrades. DESY also participates in the Belle II experiment at the electron–positron collider SuperKEKB at the research centre KEK in Tsukuba, Japan, as well as in developments for possible future electron–positron linear colliders. It is also active in theoretical particle physics.
The Astroparticle Physics division investigates high-energy processes in the universe. Detectors and telescopes are used to analyse neutrinos and gamma rays from space, which can provide information about cosmic phenomena: black holes, exploding stars and radiation bursts of extreme intensity. To this end, DESY is involved in the gamma telescopes MAGIC, H.E.S.S. and VERITAS as well as the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and it contributes to the planned Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. It is the second largest partner in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole.