Particle accelerators are experimental techniques and associated infrastructures that use electromagnetic fields to accelerate charged particles, such as electrons, protons, or heavy ions, to high kinetic energies and control their trajectories for collision, beam-target, or irradiation experiments. They employ radiofrequency cavities, electrostatic fields, and magnetic optics (dipole, quadrupole, and higher-order magnets) to shape, focus, and steer beams with precise energy, emittance, and luminosity characteristics. As techniques, accelerators enable probing of fundamental interactions in high-energy physics, production of secondary particles (e.g., neutrons, mesons, synchrotron radiation), and finely controlled irradiation or imaging in materials science, nuclear physics, and medical and industrial applications.
Researchers from Berkeley Lab's Accelerator Technology & Applied Physics (ATAP) Division have teamed up with colleagues from Michigan State University's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), the world's most powerful heavy-ion ...
Superconductivity
Oct 4, 2024
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After an unexpected measurement by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment in 2022, physicists on the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment (CMS) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) announced today a new mass measurement ...
General Physics
Sep 22, 2024
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In the early morning of 13 September, the LHC reached a significant milestone, surpassing 100 fb-1 of integrated luminosity delivered to ATLAS and CMS in a single year—a record—and the figure is still rising. Then, LHCb's ...
General Physics
Sep 20, 2024
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As particle accelerator technology moves into the high-luminosity era, the need for extreme precision and unprecedented collision energy keeps growing. Given also the Laboratory's desire to reduce energy consumption and costs, ...
General Physics
Sep 12, 2024
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LHC Run 3 began in 2022, with the recommissioning of the LHC at 6.8 TeV, resulting in the delivery of 39.7 fb⁻¹ of integrated luminosity, surpassing initial expectations. Luminosity is an important indicator of the performance ...
General Physics
Sep 4, 2024
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Laser-plasma accelerators take up less space than conventional facilities, which are sometimes kilometers long. Such compact particle sources can accelerate electron bunches efficiently, enabling X-ray lasers that fit in ...
Optics & Photonics
Aug 30, 2024
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In experiments at the Brookhaven National Lab in the US, an international team of physicists has detected the heaviest "anti-nuclei" ever seen. The tiny, short-lived objects are composed of exotic antimatter particles.
General Physics
Aug 25, 2024
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The world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator may be producing the world's tiniest droplets of liquid, right under scientists' noses. Researchers are digging into this subatomic enigma.
General Physics
Aug 22, 2024
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Scientists studying the tracks of particles streaming from six billion collisions of atomic nuclei at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—an "atom smasher" that recreates the conditions of the early universe—have discovered ...
General Physics
Aug 21, 2024
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New research using a decommissioned section of the beam pipe from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has brought scientists closer than ever before to test whether magnetic monopoles exist.
General Physics
Aug 16, 2024
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