Linear electron–positron collider

When the first beams begin circulating in PEP at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in March, both sides of the Atlantic will have storage rings producing electron–positron collisions at center‐of‐mass energies up to 36 GeV. If the rich history of the previous generation of $e+e−$ colliding‐beam storage rings is any guide, this new energy regime should provide an abundance of interesting physics. But PEP and its Germany cousin PETRA (at DESY, Hamburg) still fall short of the energy range 90–150 GeV that particularly intrigues particle physicists. The European high‐energy community hopes to have a storage ring (LEP) of gargantuan size and price tag, capable of achieving these energies by about 1988.