The use of storage rings in high energy physics

Some of the general considerations governing the usefulness and the practicability of storage rings, in which circulating beams of elementary particles are maintained for periods long in relation to the time for a single revolution in orbit are presented. Single storage rings for experiments on free particles are discussed in one section, which is followed by a chapter on colliding beam storage rings. The storage ring is presented as a device allowing investigation of processes which are inaccessible with the conventional arrangement of beam and stationary target. The latter part of the report is concerned with intersecting storage rings for proton-proton collisions, with particular emphasis on their use for obtaining high energies in the centre of mass system. The major part of this section is devoted to the CERN intersecting storage rings and the experimental work based on them, with a discussion of results obtained in the first twenty months of operation. (43 refs).