A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles. In particle accelerators, these particles can move with a velocity close to the speed of light. There is a difference between the creation and control of charged particle beams and neutral particle beams, as only the first type can be manipulated to a sufficient extent by devices based on electromagnetism. The manipulation and diagnostics of charged particle beams at high kinetic energies using particle accelerators are main topics of accelerator physics.
Charged particles such as electrons, positrons, and protons may be separated from their common surrounding. This can be accomplished by e.g. thermionic emission or arc discharge. The following devices are commonly used as sources for particle beams:
Ion source
Cathode ray tube, or more specifically in one of its parts called electron gun. This is also part of traditional television and computer screens.
Photocathodes may also be built in as a part of an electron gun, using the photoelectric effect to separate particles from their substrate.
Neutron beams may be created by energetic proton beams which impact on a target, e.g. of beryllium material. (see article Particle therapy)
Bursting a Petawatt Laser onto a titanium foil to produce a proton beam.
Accelerator physics and Superconducting radio frequency
Charged beams may be further accelerated by use of high resonant, sometimes also superconducting, microwave cavities. These devices accelerate particles by interaction with an electromagnetic field. Since the wavelength of hollow macroscopic, conducting devices is in the radio frequency (RF) band, the design of such cavities and other RF devices is also a part of accelerator physics.
More recently, plasma acceleration has emerged as a possibility to accelerate particles in a plasma medium, using the electromagnetic energy of pulsed high-power laser systems or the kinetic energy of other charged particles. This technique is under active development, but cannot provide reliable beams of sufficient quality at present.
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Accelerator physics covers a wide range of very exciting topics. This course presents basic physics ideas and the technologies underlying the workings of modern accelerators. An overview of the new id
Following an introduction of the main plasma properties, the fundamental concepts of the fluid and kinetic theory of plasmas are introduced. Applications concerning laboratory, space, and astrophysica
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
Learn the basics of plasma, one of the fundamental states of matter, and the different types of models used to describe it, including fluid and kinetic.
A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle physics. The largest accelerator currently active is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland, operated by the CERN. It is a collider accelerator, which can accelerate two beams of protons to an energy of 6.5 TeV and cause them to collide head-on, creating center-of-mass energies of 13 TeV.
In accelerator physics, a beamline refers to the trajectory of the beam of particles, including the overall construction of the path segment (guide tubes, diagnostic devices) along a specific path of an accelerator facility. This part is either the line in a linear accelerator along which a beam of particles travels, or the path leading from particle generator (e.g. a cyclic accelerator, synchrotron light sources, cyclotrons, or spallation sources) to the experimental end-station.
A dipole magnet is the simplest type of magnet. It has two poles, one north and one south. Its magnetic field lines form simple closed loops which emerge from the north pole, re-enter at the south pole, then pass through the body of the magnet. The simplest example of a dipole magnet is a bar magnet. In particle accelerators, a dipole magnet is the electromagnet used to create a homogeneous magnetic field over some distance.
IMPACT (Isotope and Muon Production with Advanced Cyclotron and Target Technologies) is a proposed initia- tive envisaged for the high-intensity proton accelerator fa- cility (HIPA) at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). As part of IMPACT, a radioisotope ta ...
The High Intensity Proton Accelerator facility (HIPA) delivers a 590 MeV cw (50.6 MHz) proton beam with up to 1.4 MW beam power (2.4 mA) to spallation and meson production targets serving particle physics experiments and material research. The main acceler ...
Particle accelerators are the drivers for large-scale research infrastructures for particle physics but also for many branches of condensed matter research. The types of accelerator-driven research infrastructures include particle colliders, neutron, muon ...