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Particle accelerators accelerate subatomic particles to high speeds and keep them in small beams. They have many applications in physics research, including the discovery of the Higgs boson particle. Low-energy accelerators, such as cathode ray tubes and X-ray generators, are used in everyday life. More powerful accelerators are used for scientific purposes, and some have caused concern about the risk of creating miniature black holes. Despite this, particle accelerators provide immense scientific knowledge and could hold the key to a broader understanding of the physical world.
A particle accelerator, also known as an atom crusher or particle collider, is a device that accelerates subatomic particles to high speeds and keeps them in small, coherent beams. Particle accelerators have many applications in common use and in experimental and theoretical physics research. The Large Hadron Collider, the largest particle collider in existence at the time of its construction, was designed to collide particles in the hope of separating them and discovering the theoretical Higgs boson particle. Much smaller accelerators are present in the form of cathode ray tubes in simple television sets.
Cathode ray tubes and X-ray generators, both used daily by many people, are both examples of low-energy particle accelerators. A CRT television has a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns and the means to deflect the electron beam. The beam is deflected as needed onto a fluorescent screen, from which images are output. X-ray generators accelerate and collide large amounts of X-rays with a heavy metal target; anything between the generator and the metal will increase the pattern of x-rays hitting the metal. Medical professionals use it to diagnose problems within the human body.
The more powerful particle accelerators, such as those capable of igniting nuclear reactions, are generally used for scientific purposes. A particle accelerator used for physics experiments usually accelerates streams of subatomic particles in opposite directions to near the speed of light. They then manipulate and collide these beams; the particles that make up the beams collide and shatter. Physicists use special detectors to analyze broken particles, looking for even smaller particles. Each new particle discovered by physicists provides a world of information about the nature and composition of all matter.
Many experimental particle accelerators, notably the Large Hadron Collider, have caused concern among some physicists about the risk posed by such devices not only to the scientists involved, but to the Earth as a whole. Some mathematical theories show the possibility that a high-power particle accelerator could cause the formation of miniature black holes. Most physicists, however, agree that these micro black holes, if produced, would pose little to no threat as they would either scatter into harmless Hawking radiation or grow too slowly to present any sort of reasonable danger.
A particle accelerator may seem to some to be a somewhat primitive tool, reminiscent of cavemen striking stones together to find out what exists inside. The scientific knowledge gained from such devices, however, is immense and will likely continue to be so as particle accelerators become ever more powerful. The electron, for example, was discovered through the use of a cathode ray tube. Some theorize that the Higgs boson particle, if discovered, could hold the key to a much broader understanding of the physical world as a whole.
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