Particle accelerators

Abstract

Particle accelerators are facilities for the generation and acceleration of charged particle beams to high energies. Accelerators are used since 1920 to investigate the structure of matter. With a particle beam of energy E b it is possible to probe structures with typical dimensions of the de Broglie wavelength λ ≈ hc/Eb in scattering experiments. The higher the provided beam energy the smaller are the experimentally accessible dimensions. Another successful concept is the production of new particles by colliding two opposing particle beams with well-defined centre of mass energy. With increasing beam energy heavier particles can be produced. Many important discoveries in particle physics where achieved in the twentieth century using accelerators. As an originally disturbing side effect, intense UV-and X-ray radiation is produced in the bending magnets of electron accelerators. This effect was predicted already in 1898 and observed in an accelerator in 1947. Since the 1960s this so-called synchrotron radiation from accelerators is used for experimental research with increasing popularity.