particle accelerator

Examples of particle accelerator in the following topics:

• Particle Accelerator

  • A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds within well-defined beams.
  • A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams.
  • While current particle accelerators are focused on smashing subatomic particles together, early particle accelerators would smash entire atoms together, inducing nuclear fusion and thus nuclear transmutation.
  • Electrostatic accelerators use static electric fields to accelerate particles.
  • Despite the fact that most accelerators (with the exception of ion facilities) actually propel subatomic particles, the term persists in popular usage when referring to particle accelerators in general.

• Examples and Applications

  • A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator in which charged particles accelerate outwards from the center along a spiral path.
  • The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying (radio frequency) electric field.
  • Cyclotrons accelerate charged particle beams using a high frequency alternating voltage which is applied between two "D"-shaped electrodes (also called "dees").
  • The particles accelerated by the cyclotron can be used in particle therapy to treat some types of cancer.
  • Sketch of a particle being accelerated in a cyclotron, and being ejected through a beamline.

• Radiation Detection

  • A radiation detector is a device used to detect, track, or identify high-energy particles.
  • A radiation detector is a device used to detect, track, or identify high-energy particles, such as those produced by nuclear decay, cosmic radiation, and reactions in a particle accelerator.
  • They may be also used to measure other attributes, such as momentum, spin, and charge of the particles.
  • If a particle has enough energy to ionize a gas atom or molecule, the resulting electrons and ions cause a current flow, which can be measured.
  • The pulse yields meaningful information about the particle that originally struck the scintillator.

• Circular Motion

  • Since the magnetic force is always perpendicular to the velocity of a charged particle, the particle will undergo circular motion.
  • Magnetic forces can cause charged particles to move in circular or spiral paths.
  • Particle accelerators keep protons following circular paths with magnetic force.
  • The curved paths of charged particles in magnetic fields are the basis of a number of phenomena and can even be used analytically, such as in a mass spectrometer. shows the path traced by particles in a bubble chamber.
  • The term comes from the name of a cyclic particle accelerator called a cyclotron, showed in .

• Overview of Non-Uniform Circular Motion

  • Non-uniform circular motion denotes a change in the speed of a particle moving along a circular path.
  • It follows then that non-uniform circular motion denotes a change in the speed of the particle moving along the circular path.
  • A particle moving at higher speed will need a greater radial force to change direction and vice-versa when the radius of the circular path is constant.
  • The important thing to note here is that, although change in speed of the particle affects radial acceleration, the change in speed is not affected by radial or centripetal force.
  • The corresponding acceleration is called tangential acceleration.

• Radiation Reaction

  • We have found that when a charge is accelerated a certain power is radiated away, so to accelerate the particle we must provide some extra energy to work against a "radiation reaction'' force,
  • We can drop the term from the endpoints if for example the acceleration vanishes at $t=t_1$ and $t=t_2$ or if the acceleration and velocity of the particle are the same at $t=t_1$ and $t=t_2$.We can identify,

• Constant Velocity Produces a Straight-Line

  • There are many cases where a particle may experience no net force.
  • Or there could be two or more forces on the particle that are balanced such that the net force is zero.
  • If the net force on a particle is zero, then the acceleration is necessarily zero from Newton's second law: F=ma.
  • If the acceleration is zero, any velocity the particle has will be maintained indefinitely (or until such time as the net force is no longer zero).
  • Identify conditions required for the particle to move in a straight line in the magnetic field

• Kinetic Energy and Work-Energy Theorem

  • The principle of work and kinetic energy (also known as the work-energy theorem) states that the work done by the sum of all forces acting on a particle equals the change in the kinetic energy of the particle.
  • The work W done by the net force on a particle equals the change in the particle's kinetic energy KE:
  • where vi and vf are the speeds of the particle before and after the application of force, and m is the particle's mass.
  • The particle is moving with constant acceleration a along a straight line.
  • The relationship between the net force and the acceleration is given by the equation F = ma (Newton's second law), and the particle's displacement d, can be determined from the equation:

• Graphical Interpretation

  • Acceleration is accompanied by a force, as described by Newton's Second Law; the force, as a vector, is the product of the mass of the object being accelerated and the acceleration (vector), or $F=ma$.
  • Because acceleration is velocity in $\displaystyle \frac{m}{s}$ divided by time in s, we can further derive a graph of acceleration from a graph of an object's speed or position.
  • From this graph, we can further derive an acceleration vs time graph.
  • The acceleration graph shows that the object was increasing at a positive constant acceleration during this time.
  • This is depicted as a negative value on the acceleration graph.

• Relationship Between Torque and Angular Acceleration

  • Torque is equal to the moment of inertia times the angular acceleration.
  • Torque and angular acceleration are related by the following formula where is the objects moment of inertia and $\alpha$ is the angular acceleration .
  • If you replace torque with force and rotational inertia with mass and angular acceleration with linear acceleration, you get Newton's Second Law back out.
  • In fact, this equation is Newton's second law applied to a system of particles in rotation about a given axis.
  • Torque, Angular Acceleration, and the Role of the Church in the French Revolution