Editing Super Proton Synchrotron (section)

==History==
[[File:CERN UA5 - ppbar interaction at 540GeV.jpg|thumb|A [[proton]]&ndash;[[antiproton]] collision from the [[UA5 experiment]] at the SPS in 1982]]
The SPS was designed by a team led by [[John Adams (physicist)|John Adams]], [[List of Directors General of CERN|director-general]] of what was then known as [[Laboratory II]]. Originally specified as a 300 [[GeV]] accelerator, the SPS was actually built to be capable of 400&nbsp;GeV, an operating energy it achieved on the official commissioning date of 17 June 1976. However, by that time, this energy had been exceeded by [[Fermilab]], which reached an energy of 500&nbsp;GeV on 14 May of that year.<ref>[http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/28470 CERN courier]</ref>

The SPS has been used to accelerate [[proton]]s and [[antiproton]]s, [[electron]]s and [[positron]]s (for use as the injector for the [[Large Electron–Positron Collider]] (LEP)<ref>[http://sl-div.web.cern.ch/sl-div/history/lep_doc.html#3.8 The LEP Collider – from Design to Approval and Commissioning] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140618030149/https://sl-div.web.cern.ch/sl-div/history/lep_doc.html#3.8 |date=18 June 2014 }}, by S. Myers, section 3.8. Last accessed 28 February 2010.</ref>), and [[quark–gluon plasma|heavy ions]].

From 1981 to 1991, the SPS operated as a hadron (more precisely, proton–antiproton) collider (as such it was called [[Proton-Antiproton Collider|Sp{{overline|p}}S)]], when its beams provided the data for the [[UA1 experiment|UA1]] and [[UA2 experiment]]s, which resulted in the discovery of the [[W and Z bosons]]. These discoveries and a new technique for [[stochastic cooling|cooling]] particles led to a Nobel Prize for [[Carlo Rubbia]] and [[Simon van der Meer]] in 1984.

From 2006 to 2012, the SPS was used by the [[CERN Neutrinos to Gran Sasso|CNGS]] experiment to produce a [[neutrino]] [[Accelerator neutrino|beam]] to be detected at the [[Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso|Gran Sasso]] laboratory in Italy, 730&nbsp;km from CERN.