TABLE OF CONTENTS

S.NO TOPIC PAGE NUMBER

1 INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL
DOCUMENTATION 1 - 17
2 PARTICLE ACCELERATOR AND ITS
PRINCIPLE 19 -21
3 GENERATING PARTICLES 23
4 INTRODUCTION TO CALC 25 - 41
5 ACCELERATING PARTICLES 43 - 45
6 BUNCHING OF PARTICLES 47
7 USING MAGNETIC FIELDS IN
ACCELERATOR 47 - 49
8 FOCUSING AND COLLIDING OF
PARTICLES 49 -51
9 DETECTING PARTICLES 53
10 TYPES OF PARTICLE DETECTORS 55 -61
11 EXTERNAL LINKS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 63
 PARTICLE ACCELERATOR

Introduction:

A particle accelerator is a machine that speeds up tiny particles, like atoms or

smaller, to very high speeds. These particles have an electric charge, which
allows them to move quickly when put into the accelerator.

Scientists use particle accelerators to study things like the structure of atoms and
how the forces inside them work. They also help scientists discover new
elements that don’t naturally exist on Earth, such as unstable elements like
transuranium elements.

Principles of Particle Acceleration:

Particle accelerators come in many shapes and sizes, but they all work using the
same basic principles. Even a simple television picture tube works like a small
particle accelerator! Whether small or large, all particle accelerators need the
following key parts:

1. Source of Charged Particles: Every accelerator needs a way to produce

particles that have an electric charge. For example, a television tube uses
electrons, while larger accelerators use particles like electrons, protons,
and even their opposites (called antiparticles).
2. Electric Fields: These are used to speed up the charged particles, giving
them energy to move faster.
3. Magnetic Fields: Magnets are used to guide and control the path of the
particles as they travel through the machine.
4. Vacuum: The particles need to travel through a space with very little air.
This is called a vacuum, similar to the inside of a television tube, so the
particles don't hit air molecules and slow down.
5. Detection: After the particles are accelerated, the accelerator must have
equipment to detect, count, and measure them to help scientists
understand their behaviour.

Generating Particles in Particle Accelerators:

The most common particles used in particle accelerators are electrons and
protons. These particles exist in all materials, but they need to be separated for
use in accelerators.

1. Generating Electrons:
o Electrons are produced in a device called an electron gun, which
works much like the one in a television tube.
o Inside the electron gun, there's a cathode (a negatively charged
piece of metal) in a vacuum. When the cathode is heated, electrons
break free from the atoms in the metal.
 o These electrons, which are negatively charged, are attracted toward
the anode (a positively charged part) and pass through a hole.
o As the electrons move from the cathode to the anode, they are sped
up by an electric field, which is why the electron gun is like a
simple accelerator.
o The electric voltage between the cathode and anode is usually
around 50,000 to 150,000 volts (50–150 kilovolts).
2. Generating Protons:
o Protons are also found in all materials, but only the nucleus of a
hydrogen atom has a single proton. So, hydrogen gas is used as
the source of protons in proton accelerators.
o The gas is ionized, which means the electrons and protons are
separated by an electric field, allowing the protons to escape
through a hole.
o In some large accelerators, negative hydrogen ions are used first.
These are hydrogen atoms with an extra electron attached, making
them easier to handle in the early stages of acceleration.
o Later on, the extra electrons are removed, leaving just the protons,
which then move to the final stage of the accelerator.
Accelerating Particles in a Particle Accelerator:

The main part of any particle accelerator is the electric field that speeds up the
particles. Here’s how it works:

 Imagine a simple electric field, similar to what exists between the positive
and negative ends of a battery.
 In this field, an electron (which has a negative charge) is pulled toward
the positive side of the field, just like how it moves toward the positive
terminal of a battery. This force pushes the electron, causing it to
accelerate (or speed up). As long as nothing gets in its way, the electron
will keep moving faster and gaining more energy.
 In normal air or along a wire, electrons would collide with atoms and
lose energy. However, in a particle accelerator, the electrons move
through a vacuum (a space with almost no air), so they don't collide with
anything and can keep speeding up as they move toward the positive
charge.

Different Types of Particle Accelerators:

The below graph shows the evolution of particle accelerators over time:
1. Early Designs:
o Early particle accelerators used constant electric fields with very
high voltages (up to a million volts), such as the Van de Graaff
generator. However, it's difficult to work with such high voltages.
2. Modern Accelerators:
o A more practical approach is to use lower voltages but apply them
repeatedly. This way, particles get many small "pushes," which
together give them a large amount of energy. This is the idea
behind modern particle accelerators:
 Linear Accelerators (Linacs): The particles pass through a
series of electric fields once, getting a small boost from each.

The following table shows the pulse length and the corresponding
peak current for linear accelerators.
  Cyclic Accelerators (Cyclotrons and Synchrotrons): The
particles are guided in a circular path, passing through the
same electric fields multiple times to build up energy.

Bunching of Particles:

Because of phase stability, the particles don’t form a continuous beam. Instead,
they group together into bunches as they move through the accelerator, like a
train with multiple cars instead of one long stream.

How Magnetic Fields Work:

 When a charged particle moves at a right angle to a magnetic field, it

feels a force that pushes it in a new direction. This force is also at a right
angle to both the particle’s movement and the magnetic field.
 This force causes the particle to move in a circular path as long as it
stays in the magnetic field. The particle will keep moving in a circle
unless another force acts on it or it leaves the magnetic field.

Using Magnetic Fields in Accelerators:

  This effect is especially useful in cyclic accelerators like the cyclotron
and synchrotron.
1. Cyclotron:In a cyclotron, a large magnet creates a constant
magnetic field. As the particles get more energy, they move in
spirals that get bigger and bigger. With each pass, the particles
spiral outward while gaining speed.
2. Synchrotron:
 In a synchrotron, the particles move around in a circular
path with a constant radius. As the particles get faster, the
magnetic field strength is increased to keep them moving
in that same circle.
 The magnets used to "bend" the particle beam in a circular
path are called dipole magnets. These magnets have two
poles—north and south—and are shaped like the letter "C"
so the particle beam can pass through the middle.

Focusing and Extracting Particles in Particle Accelerators:

Besides guiding particles, electromagnets have another important job in

particle accelerators: they focus the particle beams. This helps to keep the
beams as narrow and intense as possible.

Focusing Particle Beams:

 The simplest way to focus a particle beam is by using a special type of

magnet called a quadrupole magnet.
o A quadrupole magnet has four poles—two north poles and two
south poles, arranged opposite each other.
o This setup squeezes particles inward in one direction (focusing
them) but lets them spread out in the perpendicular direction. So,
 if the quadrupole focuses the beam horizontally, it will allow the
beam to spread vertically.
o To focus the beam correctly in all directions, quadrupole magnets
are used in pairs, with each one focusing in a different direction.

 For more complex focusing, scientists also use magnets with even more
poles, like sextupole magnets (six poles) and octupole magnets (eight
poles).

Colliding Particles in Particle Accelerators:

Many particle accelerators, especially those used in medicine and industry,

produce a beam of particles for specific tasks like radiation therapy or ion
implantation. In these cases, the particles are used once and then discarded. For
a long time, this was also the method used in particle physics research.

However, since the 1970s, scientists have developed colliding-beam

accelerators, where two beams of particles circulate in opposite directions
and collide with each other head-on. This setup has a big advantage: when the
particles crash into each other directly, all their energy goes into creating new
particles and interactions.

In contrast, if a beam of particles hits a stationary target, a lot of the energy is

wasted because it goes into moving the target, due to the conservation of
momentum. That’s why colliding beams are much more efficient for research.

Particle Bunches:

 The particles in a synchrotron don’t move in a continuous stream but in

groups called bunches.
 Each bunch is very small, about a few centimeters long and a tenth of a
millimeter across, containing about 10¹² particles (a trillion). Even
 though this sounds like a lot, it’s not very dense—normal matter
contains about 10²³ atoms in a similar size.
 When these bunches collide, only a small number of particles from each
bunch will actually interact, but since the beams keep circulating, they get
many chances to collide again.

Storage Rings:

 To allow the particles to circulate for many hours and keep colliding, the
accelerator has to maintain a very good vacuum in the rings. This
prevents the particles from colliding with air molecules and getting lost.
 The rings where particles are stored for long periods are called storage
rings

Detecting Particles in Particle Accelerators:

When particles from an accelerator hit a target or another particle beam,

scientists need a way to detect what happens. For example, in a television,
electrons from the electron gun hit the screen and light up special materials
called phosphors, creating the image. In particle accelerators, special detectors
are used to figure out what happens during collisions or interactions.

How Detectors Work:

 Most detectors in particle accelerators are designed to produce electrical

signals when particles hit them. These signals can then be analyzed by
computers to understand the results of the experiment.
 Electrically charged particles (like electrons or protons) can be detected
directly. As they move through a material, they excite or ionize atoms
 (knock electrons off them), which creates electrical signals that detectors
can pick up.

Detecting Neutral Particles:

 Neutral particles (like neutrons or photons) don’t have an electric

charge, so they can’t be detected directly.
 Instead, neutral particles are detected indirectly. This happens by
observing how they interact with charged particles. For example, a
neutron might knock into a charged particle, which then produces an
electrical signal that the detector can read.

Types of Particle Detectors:

There are many different kinds of particle detectors, and each one is designed
for a specific job. Some detectors are simple, while others are more advanced
and can provide detailed information about particles.

Examples of Particle Detectors:

1. Geiger Counter:
o A Geiger counter is a common device that simply counts
particles as they pass through. It’s often used to measure radiation
levels.

2. Track Detectors:
o Some detectors are used to record the tracks of charged particles.
These tracks show the path a particle takes as it moves through the
detector.

3. Speed and Energy Detectors:

 o Other detectors are designed to measure the speed of a particle or
how much energy it carries.

Constant-Voltage Accelerators and its basic concept:

 A constant-voltage accelerator uses high voltage to speed up particles,

like protons or electrons, in a straight line (linear accelerator). The
particles move from one end of an evacuated (air-free) tube to the other,
gaining speed as they go.
 However, creating very high voltages (over 1 million volts) is tricky
because it can cause sparks and discharges that interfere with the
acceleration process.

Van de Graaff Generators:

 Van de Graaff generators work by transferring electric charge using a

moving belt, building up high voltage inside a large spherical dome.
 They can reach potentials as high as 20 megavolts (MV) and are often
used in tandem accelerators.
 Tandem accelerators use a clever trick: they first accelerate negatively
charged particles (negative ions) toward the positive high-voltage
terminal. Once they reach the terminal, the particles are stripped of their
electrons, becoming positively charged, and are then accelerated again,
effectively doubling the energy
Betatrons:

 A betatron is a special type of accelerator used to speed up electrons. It

uses magnetic fields to guide electrons in a circular path, and these fields
also create electric fields that accelerate the electrons.
  Betatrons can produce very high-energy electrons (up to 300 MeV),
which can be used to create X-rays for industrial radiography and
medical radiation therapy.

Cyclotrons:

 The cyclotron was one of the first accelerators capable of producing

particles with enough energy for nuclear research.
 Inside a cyclotron, particles spiral outward, gaining energy with each
loop, thanks to an alternating electric field. Magnets guide the particles in
a spiral path, and as the particles get faster, they move in larger circles.
 However, the energy is limited because, as the particles approach the
speed of light, they gain mass (due to relativity), which throws them out
of sync with the electric field.

Synchrocyclotrons and Sector-Focused Cyclotrons:

  Synchrocyclotrons adjust the frequency of the electric field as particles
speed up, preventing them from getting out of sync due to the relativistic
mass increase.
 Sector-focused cyclotrons use a trick called alternating-gradient
focusing to keep particles on the correct path, even at higher energies.
This method allows cyclotrons to reach higher energies without being
limited by relativity.

External links and Bibliography:

 What are particle accelerators used for?

 Stanley Humphries (1999) Principles of Charged Particle Acceleration
 Particle Accelerators around the world
 Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky: The Evolution of Particle Accelerators &
Colliders, (PDF), Stanford, 1997
 P.J. Bryant, A Brief History and Review of Accelerators (PDF), CERN,
1994.
 Heilbron, J.L.; Robert W. Seidel (1989). Lawrence and His Laboratory: A
History of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Berkeley: University of
California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06426-3.
 David Kestenbaum, Massive Particle Accelerator Revving Up NPR's
Morning Edition article on 9 April 2007