Particle accelerators
Particle accelerators are divided into two by the way they were built:
1-)Linear
2-)Circular
Particle accelerators come in two basic types:
Linear - Particles travel down a long, straight track and collide with the target.
Circular - Particles travel around in a circle until they collide with the target.
Circular accelerators do essentially the same jobs as linacs. However, instead of using a long linear
track, they propel the particles around a circular track many times. At each pass, the magnetic field
is strengthened so that the particle beam accelerates with each consecutive pass. When the
particles are at their highest or desired energy, a target is placed in the path of the beam, in or
near the detectors. Circular accelerators were the first type of accelerator invented in 1929.
Ernest Lawrence
The machine was used in the following years to bombard atoms of various elements with swiftly
moving particles. Such high-energy particles could disintegrate atoms, in some cases forming
completely new elements. Hundreds of artificial radioactive elements were formed in this manner.
Initially driven by the effort to discover the antiproton, the accelerator era had begun, and with
it the science of high-energy physics was born.
In 1939 Lawrence won the Nobel prize in pyhsics, "for the invention and development of the
cyclotron and for results obtained with it, especially with regard to artificial radioactive elements".
1932
•
Robert Van de Graaff develops his particle accelerator using a high voltage generator, also
developed by Van de Graaff, called the Van de Graaff generator.
1954
•
The English physicist Philip Dee builds a 350 MeV electron Synchrotron at the University of
Glassgow. Scientists at Brookhaven develop new C-shaped magnets and build a
Synchrotron capable of accelerating protons to 3 GeV called the Cosmotron.
1955
•
Milton Livingston builds a Synchrotron capable of accelerating protons to 6.2 GeV called
the Bevatron.
1957
•
Scientists at Dubna USSR build a Synchrotron capable of accelerating protons to 10GeV
called the Synchrophasotron.
1962
•
Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberg discover the Muon Neutrino using the
Alternate Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
1966
•
At SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre), a 2 mile long linear accelerator capable of
accelerating electrons to 18.4 GeV is built. Quarks are discovered at SLAC. The Russian
physicist, Gersh Budker first discusses the idea of proton - antiproton colliders including a
damping technique called electron cooling.
1977
•
The bottom quark is discovered by a team led by Leon Lederman using the Tevatron at
Fermilab.
1979
•
Scientists at DESY working on the PETRA accelerator discover the gluon.
1983
•
SPS at CERN is converted into a proton - antiproton collided after a proposal by the Italian
physicist Carlo Rubbia. In doing so the W and Z particle are discovered in 1983.
1987
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The Tevatron is the first accelerator to use superconducting magnets.
1990
•
Scientists at DESY build the first electron - proton collider, HERA.
1995
•
The last of the quarks, the top quark is discovered by scientists working on the Tevatron at
Fermilab.
2008
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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is completed at CERN.
2012
•
A new particle which could be the Higgs boson is discovered at the LHC.