Superconducting Magnets for Accelerators and Detectors

The development of superconductors for magnet applications has received a strong boost from the High Energy Physics (HEP) community, both for detector magnets and for accelerator magnets. The demand for very high current density (both Jc and Jc,overall), for fine filaments, for control of the copper content, for very compact cables with large current capability, the ability to superstabilize large cables at moderate cost, together with necessity of producing hundreds of tons of materials for large projects, have been the main motivation for the continued improvement of practical superconductors. HEP has provided so far, and still does nowadays, a unique forum where material scientists, fabrication engineers and final users, i.e. magnet designers and magnet constructors, gather together and, by sharing their knowledge and their needs, are able to accomplish real progress in the technology. In particular accelerator magnets have reached a point where, in order to go beyond the 9 T limit of the present LHC in construction at CERN a serious and coordinated technological effort is needed. In particular this paper reviews the main characteristics of accelerator magnets and detector magnets in the contest of various HEP projects.