BASELINE DESIGN FOR THE FACILITY FOR ANTIPROTON AND ION RESEACH (FAIR) FINALIZED

In 2001, GSI, together with a large international science community, presented the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for a new accelerator facility for beams of ions and antiprotons in Darmstadt [1]. This unique facility, now named FAIR Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research, is based on extensive discussions and a broad range of workshops and working group reports, organized by GSI and by the international user communities over a period of several years. Following an in-depth evaluation of the proposal by the German Wissenschaftsrat and its recommendation to realize the facility, the Federal Government gave conditional approval for construction of FAIR in February 2003. Since then the project has gone through major steps of development and significant progress has been achieved with regard to the scientific-technical and political preparation of the project. The FAIR Baseline Technical Report [2] is the latest result of the process.