Synchrotron or X-ray laser: how is the Swiss Light Source different from SwissFEL?
PSI runs two very different X-ray machines a few hundred metres apart. Both get their light from electrons moving at almost the speed of light, but one is a ring that shines continuously and the other is a straight line that fires ultrashort flashes.
Does PSI have a nuclear reactor? Where its neutrons really come from
The Paul Scherrer Institute grew partly out of Switzerland’s reactor research institute, and it produces neutrons on a large scale. Yet no nuclear reactor operates there today: the neutrons come from an accelerator.
How big is a proton? The puzzle that began with muons at PSI
The proton’s charge radius is about 0.84 femtometres – a little under a millionth of a billionth of a metre. That is today’s recommended value. Until 2010 the accepted figure was about 4 per cent larger, and the measurement that changed it was made at PSI.