my recent articles |
| Tiny plasma particle accelerator smashes record |
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14 February 2007, for New Scientist A metre-long plasma-powered particle accelerator can boost electrons' energy to the same degree as a conventional machine 3-kilometres-long, experiments show. For all it does, the diminutive accelerator is also relatively simple, consisting of a metal tube filled with gas. Physicists use accelerators to crash particles together at enormous speeds. The debris from these collisions can reveal exotic particles and new phenomena. But particle accelerators, which normally accelerate particles using empty cavities filled with electromagnetic fields, need to be kilometres-long to attain such speeds. They also cost billions of dollars to build. Mark Hogan at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California, US, is developing an alternative. Together with colleagues at SLAC and at the University of California in Los Angeles, US, Hogan has created a much more compact plasma-powered accelerator.... Read the rest on the New Scientist website. |