What Are Particle Accelerators, And How Do They Work?

Published in

The Istanbul Chronicle

3 min readMar 18, 2022

Particle accelerators are machines that use electromagnetic fields in order to speed up charged particles to near the speed of light and to very high levels of energy to create a beam of charged particles. Although the first thing that comes into mind when we think about particle accelerators is condensed matter physics and studying the laws of physics, particle accelerators are actually used for a wide range of commercial purposes. One of those purposes is health and medicine, such as particle therapy — which is a type of external beam radiotherapy — or oncology that is concerned with diagnosing, preventing, and treating cancer.

Particle accelerators are classified according to their method of speeding up particles, such as linear, cyclotron, betatron, etc. To explain how particle accelerators work, let’s take a look at linear accelerators. First, we take a vacuum tube so that the particles will not interact with other molecules. At the head of the tube, particle generators use electricity at high voltages to create the charged particles that we will utilize. Now that we created the charged particles, we need to move them. To do so, we use electrical fields. Electrically charged plates with holes inside them are used to create a potential difference. The usage of the plates ensures that a potential difference is created to keep the particles moving and to create a passage for the particles to pass, the middle of the plates is carved. The idea is that the particle continues to pass through the plates because only every other plate is charged the same, and consecutive plates are oppositely charged. Therefore, it will slow down and speed up in between every plate depending on the charge of the particle, accelerating the particles as the name suggests.

One of the most popular particle accelerators is the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which was built by The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Inside the LHC, two-particle beams are accelerated nearly to the speed of light in opposite directions to be smashed together. The reason for that is to recreate the collisions of particles that took place just after the Big Bang in order to understand how the universe has come to be.

Another area in which particle accelerators are commonly used is medicine, such as the usage of cyclotrons to create radioactive isotopes. Particles in cyclotrons use magnetic fields and increasing electric fields to accelerate. The particles start moving from the center and follow a spiral towards the outside, which gives the accelerator its name. The cyclotron is used to create radioactive isotopes called radioisotopes. These radioisotopes are used for many purposes, varying from radiography that assists diagnoses to nuclear treatments.

Everything around us is made up of those small particles that we do not even pay attention to in our daily lives. However, the interaction of particles that we cannot even see with our own eyes helps us in many areas including the health sector, and has created the universe of which we try to solve the mysteries of today.