Particle accelerators use electric fields to accelerate charged particles to high speeds. They are used to observe small particles and generate electromagnetic radiation. There are two types: circular and linear. Circular accelerators save hardware but emit synchrotron radiation, while linear accelerators fire particles in a straight line. They are used in physics applications to simulate exotic conditions and discover the “particle zoo.” Examples include the X-ray generator and television. The largest circular accelerator is Fermilab, while the largest linear accelerator is the Stanford Linear Accelerator.
A particle accelerator is a physical device that uses electric fields to accelerate charged particles to immense speeds, sometimes significant fractions of the speed of light. Common particles that can be found inside particle accelerators include protons and electrons, the building blocks of the atom.
A particle accelerator is used to observe the behavior of small particles at high speeds and energies, as well as for more everyday purposes such as generating a specific type of electromagnetic radiation. Particle accelerators are often used to crash particles into each other at very high speeds, revealing their most fundamental components. The X-ray generator and television are both common examples of particle accelerators, with the same basic design as their larger cousins used in high-energy physics experiments. A particle accelerator falls into one of two categories: circular or linear.
In a circular particle accelerator, particles are accelerated in a continuous circular path. The advantage of this arrangement is that the particle can be directed in a circle many times, saving hardware. The downside is that particles in circular accelerators emit electromagnetic radiation, called synchrotron radiation. Since their momentum constantly encourages them to fly on a trajectory tangential to the circle, energy must continually be expended to keep them on the circular path, meaning circular particle accelerators are less efficient. In large accelerators, synchrotron radiation is so intense that the entire accelerator must be buried to maintain safety standards. The Fermilab particle accelerator in Illinois has a 4-mile (6.43 km) circular path.
Linear accelerators fire particles in a straight line at a fixed target. The television’s cathode ray tube is a low-energy particle accelerator, which shoots photons in the range of visible light onto a glass plate, the screen. The stream of photons is constantly redirected to fill the screen with pixels. This redirection happens fast enough to perceive the alternating stream of photons as a continuous image.
High-energy linear accelerators, or linacs, are used in physics applications. A series of plates alternately attract and repel charged particles moving through them, pulling particles forward when they haven’t yet passed them and pushing them away after they have. In this way, alternating electric fields can be used to accelerate streams of particles to very high speeds and energies. Physicists use these accelerators to simulate exotic conditions, such as those at the center of stars or near the beginning of the universe. The “particle zoo” described by the Standard Model of particle physics has been discovered incrementally in experiments with particle accelerators. The largest linear particle accelerator is the Stanford Linear Accelerator with a length of 2 miles (3.2 km).
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