What happens in a particle accelerator?

Question

How is the particle accelerated? Is it by increasing its energy? Is it only charged elementary particles that can be accelerated, because they are the only ones that can absorb photons and gain energy?

Don Lincoln of FermiLab did a series of videos on physics, including several on how accelerators work. See Videos by Don Lincoln. Check numbers 45, 55, 57, and 59 - 62. Then you might look at 28, 29, 24, 85, etc. — mmesser314, Apr 12 '22 at 02:27
Does this answer your question? Accelerating electrons via microwaves — John Rennie, Apr 12 '22 at 06:24

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 11 '22 at 22:50

A particle accelerator pushes particles with an electric field. For that reason, it only accelerates charged particles, although they need not be elementary. Particle accelerators employ classical electrodynamic principles, no quantum reasoning required. But relativity usually is.

anna v · Answer 2 · 2022-04-12T03:36:35.217

2

A direct copy from the link explains it simply:

please read the link for details

edited Apr 12 '22 at 03:36

answered Apr 12 '22 at 03:28

anna v

233,453

That's one type (a synchrotron). There are others. – John Doty Apr 12 '22 at 12:35
@JohnDoty sure , this is a simple to understand example – anna v Apr 12 '22 at 13:10

What happens in a particle accelerator?

2 Answers2