PARTICLE ACCELERATORS

(CYCLOTRON, VAN DE GRAAFF GENERATORS)

Atul Sharma
 Index

S.No Content Page no

01 Acknowledgement 02
02 Particle Accelerators 03
03 Facts about Particle Accelerators 11
04 Bibliography 12

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 Acknowledgement

The success and final outcome of this project required a lot

of guidance and assistance from many people and I am
extremely privileged to have got this all along the
completion of my project. All that I have done is only due
to such supervision and assistance and I would not forget
to thank them.
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to
my teacher Alagesan Apparaju as well as our principal M.
Poovanan who gave me the golden opportunity to do this
wonderful project on the topic Particle Accelerators -A
new way to understand Physics, which also helped me in
doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many
new things I am really thankful to them.
Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and friends
who helped me a lot in finalizing this project within the
limited time frame.

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Particle Accelerators
A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to
propel charged particles to nearly light speed and to contain them in
well-defined beams.
Large accelerators are used in particle physics as colliders or as
synchrotron light sources for the study of condensed matter physics.
Smaller particle accelerators are used in a wide variety of
applications, including particle therapy for oncological purposes,
radioisotope production for medical diagnostics, ion implanters for
manufacture of semiconductors, and accelerator mass spectrometers
for measurements of rare isotopes such as radiocarbon.
There are two basic classes of accelerators:
1. Electrostatic and,
2.Electrodynamic (or electromagnetic) accelerators.

Electrostatic Accelerators:
Electrostatic accelerators use static electric fields to accelerate
particles. A small-scale example of this class is the cathode ray tube
in an ordinary old television set.
The first accelerators used simple technology of a single static high
voltage to accelerate charged particles. The charged particle was
accelerated through an evacuated tube with an electrode at either
end, with the static potential across it. Since the particle passed only
once through the potential difference, the output energy was limited
to the accelerating voltage of the machine. While this method is still
extremely popular today, with the electrostatic accelerators greatly
out-numbering any other type, they are more suited to lower energy

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studies owing to the practical voltage limit of about 1 MV for air
insulated machines, or 30 MV when the accelerator is operated in a
tank of pressurized gas with high dielectric strength, such as sulfur
hexafluoride.
The two main types of electrostatic accelerator are the Cockcroft-
Walton accelerator, which uses a diode-capacitor voltage multiplier
to produce high voltage, and the Van de Graaff accelerator, which
uses a moving fabric belt to carry charge to the high voltage electrode.
Although electrostatic accelerators accelerate particles along a
straight line, the term linear accelerator is more often used for
accelerators that employ oscillating rather than static electric fields.
(a). Cockcroft-Walton accelerator:
The CockcroftWalton (CW) generator, or multiplier, is an
electric circuit that generates a high DC voltage from a low-
voltage AC or pulsing DC input.
It was named after the British and Irish physicists John Douglas
Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton, who in 1932 used
this circuit design to power their particle accelerator,
performing the first artificial nuclear disintegration in history.
CockcroftWalton circuits are still used in particle accelerators.
They also are used in everyday electronic devices that require
high voltages, such as X-ray machines, television sets,
microwave ovens and photocopiers.
It`s Design:
It is made up of a voltage multiplier ladder network of capacitors
and diodes to generate high voltages. Unlike transformers, this
method eliminates the requirement for the heavy core and the
bulk of insulation/potting required. Using only capacitors and
diodes, these voltage multipliers can step up relatively low
voltages to extremely high values, while at the same time being
far lighter and cheaper than transformers. The biggest

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advantage of such circuits is that the voltage across each stage
of the cascade is equal to only twice the peak input voltage in a
half-wave rectifier. In a full-wave rectifier it is three times the
input voltage. It has the advantage of requiring relatively low-
cost components and being easy to insulate. One can also tap
the output from any stage, like in a multi tapped transformer.

This circuit can be extended to any number of stages. The output

voltage is twice the peak input voltage multiplied by the number
of stages N or equivalently the peak-to-peak input voltage swing
(Vpp) times the number of stages

The number of stages is equal to the number of capacitors in

series between the output and ground.
(b) Van de Graaff accelerator:
A Van de Graaff generator is an electrostatic generator which
uses a moving belt to accumulate electric charge on a hollow
metal globe on the top of an insulated column, creating very
high electric potentials. It produces very high voltage direct
current (DC) electricity at low current levels.
The Van de Graaff generator was developed as a particle
accelerator for physics research, its high potential is used to
accelerate subatomic particles to great speeds in an evacuated
tube. It was the most powerful type of accelerator of the 1930s
until the cyclotron was developed. Van de Graaff generators are
still used as accelerators to generate energetic particle and x-ray
beams for nuclear research and nuclear medicine.
By the principle illustrated in the Faraday ice pail experiment,
i.e. by Gauss's law, the excess positive charge is accumulated on
the outer surface of the outer shell (1), leaving no field inside the

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 shell. Electrostatic induction by this method continues, building
up very large amounts of charge on the shell.
In the example, the wand with metal sphere (8) is connected to
ground, as is the lower comb (7); electrons are drawn up from
ground due to the attraction by the positive sphere, and when
the electric field is great enough (see below) the air breaks in the
form of an electrical discharge spark (9). Since the material of
the belt and rollers can be selected, the accumulated charge on
the hollow metal sphere can either be made positive (electron
deficient) or negative (excess electrons).

Electrodynamic accelerators:
Electrodynamic or electromagnetic accelerators, use changing
electromagnetic fields (either magnetic induction or oscillating radio
frequency fields) to accelerate particles. Since in these types the
particles can pass through the same accelerating field multiple times,
the output energy is not limited by the strength of the accelerating
field. This technique was also the basis of modern large-scale
accelerators.
The first operational linear particle accelerator was, the betatron and
the cyclotron.
(a) The Betatron:
A betatron is a type of cyclic particle accelerator. It is
essentially a transformer with a torus-shaped vacuum tube
as its secondary coil. An alternating current in the primary
coils accelerates electrons in the vacuum around a circular
path. The betatron was the first machine capable of
producing electron beams at energies higher than could be
achieved with a simple electron gun.

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In a betatron, the changing magnetic field from the
primary coil accelerates electrons injected into the vacuum
torus, causing them to circle around the torus in the same
manner as current is induced in the secondary coil of a
transformer (Faraday's Law).
The stable orbit for the electrons satisfies-

Where,
-is the flux within the area enclosed by the electron orbit,
- is the radius of the electron orbit, and
- is the magnetic field at
Betatron were historically employed in particle physics
experiments to provide high-energy beams of electrons
up to about 300 MeV. If the electron beam is directed at a
metal plate, the betatron can be used as a source of
energetic x-rays or gamma rays; these x-rays may be used
in industrial and medical applications. A small version of
a betatron was also used to provide a source of hard X-rays
for prompt initiation of some experimental nuclear
weapons by means of photon-induced fission and photon-
neutron reactions in the bomb core.
(b) The Cyclotron:
A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by
Ernest O. Lawrence in 1934 in which charged particles
accelerate outwards from the center along a spiral path.
The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static
magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying (radio
frequency) electric field.

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A cyclotron accelerates a charged particle beam using a
high frequency alternating voltage which is applied
between two hollow "D"-shaped sheet metal electrodes
called "dees" inside a vacuum chamber. The dees are
placed face to face with a narrow gap between them,
creating a cylindrical space within them for the particles to
move. The particles are injected into the center of this
space. The dees are located between the poles of a large
electromagnet which applies a static magnetic field B
perpendicular to the electrode plane. The magnetic field
causes the particles' path to bend in a circle due to the
Lorentz force perpendicular to their direction of motion.
If the particles' speeds were constant, they would travel in
a circular path within the dees under the influence of the
magnetic field. However, a radio frequency (RF)
alternating voltage of several thousand volts is applied
between the dees. The frequency is set so that the particles
make one circuit during a single cycle of the voltage. To
achieve this, the frequency must match the particle's
cyclotron resonance frequency

Where,
B is the magnetic field strength,
q is the electric charge of the particle, and
m is the relativistic mass of the charged particle.
Since the particles are accelerated by the voltage many
times, the final energy of the particles is not dependent on
the accelerating voltage but on the strength of the
magnetic field and the diameter of the accelerating
chamber, the dees. Cyclotrons can only accelerate particles

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to speeds much slower than the speed of light,
nonrelativistic speeds. For nonrelativistic particles, the
centripetal force Fc required to keep them in their curved
path is

This force is provided by the Lorentz force FB of the

magnetic field B
=
Equating these two forces

= ,

So, the output energy of the particles is

= =

Cyclotrons can be used in particle therapy to treat cancer.

Ion beams from cyclotrons can be used, as in proton
therapy, to penetrate the body and kill tumors by radiation
damage, while minimizing damage to healthy tissue along
their path.

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Uses
Beams of high-energy particles are useful for fundamental and
applied research in the sciences, and also in many technical and
industrial fields unrelated to fundamental research.
They are used for radiotherapy, for ion implantation, for industrial
processing and research, and for biomedical and another low-energy
research.
Things you might not know about particle
accelerators:
1.There are more than 30,000 accelerators in operation around the
world.

Accelerators are all over the place, doing a variety of jobs. They may be best
known for their role in particle physics research, but their other talents include:
creating tumor-destroying beams to fight cancer; killing bacteria to prevent
food-borne illnesses; developing better materials to produce more effective
diapers and shrink wrap; and helping scientists improve fuel injection to make
more efficient vehicles.

2. One of the longest modern buildings in the world was built for a
particle accelerator.

Linear accelerators, or linacs for short, are designed to hurl a beam of particles
in a straight line. In general, the longer the linac, the more powerful the
particle punch. The linear accelerator at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory,
near San Francisco, is the largest on the planet.

SLACs klystron gallery, a building that houses components that power the
accelerator, sits atop the accelerator. Its one of the worlds longest modern

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buildings. Overall, its a little less than 2 miles long, a feature that prompts
laboratory employees to hold an annual footrace around its perimeter.

3. Particle accelerators are the closest things we have to time

machines, according to Stephen Hawking.

Hawking wasnt actually proposing we try to build such a machine. But he was
pointing out a way that time travel already happens today. For example,
particles called pi mesons are normally short-lived; they disintegrate after
mere millionths of a second. But when they are accelerated to nearly the
speed of light, their lifetimes expand dramatically. It seems that these particles
are traveling in time, or at least experiencing time more slowly relative to other
particles.

4.The highest temperature recorded by a manmade device was

achieved in a particle accelerator.
In 2012, Brookhaven National Laboratorys Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider achieved
a Guinness World Record for producing the worlds hottest manmade temperature,
a blazing 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit.

5.The inside of the Large Hadron Collider is colder than outer

space.
In order to conduct electricity without resistance, the Large Hadron Colliders
electromagnets are cooled down to cryogenic temperatures. The LHC is the
largest cryogenic system in the world, and it operates at a frosty minus 456.3
degrees Fahrenheit. It is one of the coldest places on Earth, and its even a few
degrees colder than outer space, which tends to rest at about minus 454.9
degrees Fahrenheit.

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Bibliography:

1. www.Wikipedia.org
2. www.symmetrymagazine.com
3. NCERT Physics Class XII (Vol I)
4. www.blogspot.com/particle-accelerators/

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