Particle Accelerators and
Detectors
World’s Largest ‘Microscopes’
Contents
What is a Particle Accelerator?
An Early Accelerator
Modern Linear and Circular Accelerators
Particle Detectors
Examples of Accelerators and Detectors
Accelerators and Detectors as Giant
Microscopes
What is a Particle
Accelerator?
Any device that
accelerates
charged particles
to very high
speeds using
electric and/or
magnetic fields
The picture to the right shows an
early particle accelerator from
1937. This accelerator was used
in the development of the first
atomic bomb.
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Image:[Link]
An Early Accelerator
In 1929, Ernest Lawrence developed the
first circular accelerator
This cyclotron was only 4 inches in
diameter, and contained two D-shaped
magnets separated by a small gap
An oscillating voltage created an
electric field across the small gap, which
accelerated the particles as they went
around the accelerator
An Early Accelerator, cont.
Here is picture of Lawrence’s
cyclotron:
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Today’s Accelerators
Modern accelerators fall into two
basic categories:
Linear Accelerators
Circular Accelerators
Linear Accelerators
In linear accelerators, particles are accelerated in a straight
line, often with a target at one to create a collision
The size of linear accelerators varies greatly
A cathode ray tube is small enough to fit inside of a television
Stanford’s linear accelerator is two miles long
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Linear Accelerator – Example 1
(Cathode Ray Tube)
The cathode ray tube is a linear accelerator
found in many TVs, computer monitors, etc.
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Linear Accelerator - Example 2
(Stanford Linear Accelerator)
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Image:[Link]
Circular Accelerators
Circular accelerators
propel particles along a
circular path using
electromagnets until the
particles reach desired
speeds/energies
Particles are
accelerated in one
direction around the
accelerator, while anti-
particles are
accelerated in the
opposite direction
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Circular Accelerators,
cont.
Circular accelerators are able to bring
particles up to very high speeds (energies)
by allowing each particle to be accelerated
for a longer period of time—around the
accelerator.
The distance around a circular accelerator
can be quite large
Fermilab’s Tevatron (Near Chicago, USA) - 4 miles (6.44
km)
CERN’s LHC (Near Geneva, Switzerland) – 16.8 miles (27
km)
Fermilab Accelerators
The protons and anti-protons at Fermilab go
through a series of accelerators in order to
accelerate them to 1 TeV (just 200 miles per
hour slower than the speed of light)
At Fermilab, protons are accelerated in one
direction around the ring; anti-protons are
accelerated in the opposite direction
The series of accelerators at Fermilab is
illustrated by an animation located at this
website (be sure to press “play”):
[Link]
Collisions
The particle and anti-particle beams are
focused and directed at particular sites
around the ring in order to collide with
one another
These collisions are designed to occur
within detectors, which are able to
analyze the many events (particles
created, etc.) that result from the
collisions of the particles and anti-
particles
Particle Detectors
The large detectors are
able to trace and
characterize the
particles that result
from the collisions
The picture to the right
shows the 5,000-ton
CDF Collider Detector
at Fermilab
400,000 proton-
antiproton collisions
occur each second in
this detector
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Particle Detectors, cont.
By analyzing the
nature and type of
particles resulting
from the collisions,
scientists are able
to learn much
about matter at a
more fundamental
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CERN Accelerators and
Detectors
The diagram to the
right shows the
accelerators and
detectors at CERN near
Geneva, Switzerland
The LHC is the largest
circular accelerator at
CERN and is to begin
operation in 2007
CMS and ATLAS are
two of the five
examples of detectors
approved at CERN for
the LHC
Fermilab Accelerators and
Detectors
The most powerful
accelerator (the
Tevatron) in the US is
at Fermilab
The diagram to the
right shows the series
of accelerators
(including the Main
Injector and Tevatron)
and detectors
(including CDF and
DZERO) at Fermilab
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Detectors as Giant
Microscopes
Together, particle
accelerators and detectors
have helped scientists
discover very small
building blocks of matter
For instance, scientists
now think that protons
within atoms are made up
of even smaller particles
known as quarks
Check out
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for more information
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