g o o d // b y e

Misty Forest

Giant mountains national park, Czech republic

Sunrise hitting autumn larch trees in the North Cascades

One of the most incredible displays of Mother Nature I have ever seen. 

Lava pouring down the cliff into the ocean, creating massive explosions. Of course a double rainbow showed up, just to make it seem that much more like a dream.

We Were Kings

A particle accelerator is a device that, well, accelerates and increases the energy of particles. Particle accelerators are used in many applications from scientific research to industry. There are two types of particle accelerators: linear and circular.

1.) Particles Source

The source and extraction of particles depends on the type of particles. The Large Hadron Collider for example collides protons which are extracted from hydrogen gas. Hydrogen is just one proton and one electron which are separated by an electric field. 

2.) Alternating Electric Fields

Electric fields are alternated between positive and negative (direction of the field) which push the particles along accelerating them through a vacuum tube. The frequency is chosen strategically so that the particles are accelerated in bunches and not in a continuous stream A vacuum is required to limit the interference of atoms on the particles.

3.) Radio-frequency Cavities

A radio-frequency cavity is a hollow metal chamber which is perfectly shaped so that radio waves (electromagnetic waves) can resonate. Resonance allows the radio waves to increase in amplitude and transfer some of the energy to the particles providing further acceleration.

4.) Superconducting Electromagnets

To keep the particles on the track, magnetic fields produced by electromagnets (magnetic field produced by an electric current) are used. Superconductors are often used to conserve energy when large currents are used to produce large magnitude fields. Certain magnetic fields with different strengths and characteristics, such as dipole and quadruple magnets, are used for different purposes such as keeping beams aligned or bending the paths of the particles into a circle (for circular/synchrotron accelerators).

A well-known particle accelerator of the circular type is the Large Hadron Collider. The largest linear accelerator is the Stanford Linear Accelerator in California. Although these very high energy accelerators are used mostly for high energy particle physics, surprisingly enough, many lower energy accelerators are used for medical diagnosis and treatment. Particle accelerators are also commonly used in industry for computer chip manufacturing and the manufacturing and modification of advanced materials.