Design and testing of the 1.5 T superconducting solenoid for the BaBar Detector at PEP-II in SLAC

The 1.5 Tesla superconducting solenoid is part of the BABAR Detector located in the PEP-II B-Factory machine at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The solenoid has a 2.8 m bore acid is 3.7 m long. The two layer solenoid is wound with an aluminum stabilized conductor which is graded axially to produce a +/- 3% field uniformity in the tracking region. The 24 month fabrication, 3 month installation and 1 month commissioning of the solenoid were completed on time and budget. This paper summarizes the culmination of a 3 year design, fabrication and testing program of the BABAR superconducting solenoid, The work was completed by an international collaboration between Ansaldo, INFN, LLNL, and SLAG. Critical current measurements of the superconducting strand, cable and conductor, cool-down, operation with the thermo-siphon cooling, fast and slow discharges, and magnetic forces are discussed in detail.