Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: ukmicky on 05/02/2007 23:53:42
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These days Particle accelarators are the big thing in physics but Whats the difference between this new UK particle accelerator "The Diamond synchrotron "and all the others.
And why are all accelerators circular, dont they need to be linear to prevent the lose of energy as the particle rounds the bends.
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These days Particle accelarators are the big thing in physics but Whats the difference between this new UK particle accelerator "The Diamond synchrotron "and all the others.
And why are all accelerators circular, dont they need to be linear to prevent the lose of energy as the particle rounds the bends.
You are right. But if I had understood correctly, it's not made to the purpose of accelerate particles, but to produce light (synchrotron light) and, in general, electromagnetic radiation, for example X-rays, of tunable frequency. (Since the purpose is to make the particles radiate, it must be just the less linear as possible!)
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The original reason for using a circular accelerator is that you can use the same equipment (electrodes, power supplies, whatever) over and over again with the electrons picking up more energy each time they go round the ring.
However, as has been pointed out Diamond is a synchrotron radiation source it is meant to dissipate energy. At a cost of about £300M possibly the most expensive light bulb in the world.
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A synchrotron is a particle accelerator that produces highly focused, very intense beams of light including x-rays, UV and infrared.
It consists of a "gun" which feeds electrons into a circular accelerator rather like a race-track. A magnetic field then accelerates the particles to nearly the speed of light and keeps them circling.
Because the electrons are constantly changing direction (in order to keep moving in a circle), they are effectively accelerating. And because they are accelerating they emit electromagnetic radiation, also known as light. This comes off at a tangent to the circular path followed by the electron beam. This picture, from Diamond's website (www.diamond.ac.uk) helps to explain the principle:
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A different experiment can be set up at each of these "beam lines":
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By varying the energy of the electrons you can alter the wavelength of the radiation they produce, enabling the facility to generate x-rays, UV or longer wavelength beams.
According to Diamond's website, the resulting energy beam's about about 1 million times more intense than a hospital x-ray machine and runs at 3 Giga electron Volts (3 billion Volts).