Particle Accelerators and

Detectors
World’s Largest ‘Microscopes’
Contents
Why accelerator and detector?

What is a Particle Accelerator?

An Early Accelerator

Modern Linear and Circular Accelerators

Particle Detectors

Examples of Accelerators and Detectors

Accelerators and Detectors as Giant
Microscopes
 Typical tools to study objects of very small
dimensions
Resolving
power

Optical microscopes Visible light ~ 10-4 cm

Electron microscopes Low energy electrons ~ 10- 7 cm

Radioactive sources -particles ~ 10-12 cm

Accelerators High energy electrons, protons ~ 10-16 cm

What is a Particle Accelerator?
Any device that
accelerates charged
particles to very
high speeds using
electric and/or
magnetic fields

The picture to the right shows an early

particle accelerator from 1937. This
accelerator was used in the
development of the first atomic bomb.

cockcroft walton accelerator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:P3280014.JPG

Natural accelerator
Accelerator Principle
Charged particles are accelerated to high
energies using electromagnetic fields e-, e+, p,
anti-p, ionised nuclei, muons
Why are Accelerators used?
Higher energies or momenta allow to probe
shorter distances de Broglie wavelength
Accelerator as Medical applications

Therapy
 The last decades: electron accelerators

(converted to X-ray via a target) are used

very successfully for cancer therapy)

 Today's research: proton accelerators

instead (hadron therapy): energy deposition
can be controlled better, but huge technical
challenges

Imaging
 Isotope production for PET scanners
An Early Accelerator
In 1929, Ernest Lawrence developed the first
circular accelerator
This cyclotron was only 4 inches in diameter,
and contained two D-shaped magnets
separated by a small gap
An oscillating voltage created an electric field
across the small gap, which accelerated the
particles as they went around the accelerator
An Early Accelerator, cont.
Here is picture of Lawrence’s cyclotron:

http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mvigeant/univ_270_03/Jaime/History.html
Today’s Accelerators
Modern accelerators fall into two basic
categories:

 Linear Accelerators
 Circular Accelerators
Linear Accelerators
In linear accelerators, particles are accelerated in a
straight line, often with a target at one to create a
collision
The size of linear accelerators varies greatly
 A cathode ray tube is small enough to fit inside of a
television
 Stanford’s linear accelerator is two miles long

http://www.exploratorium.edu/origins/cern/tools/linac.html
 Linear Accelerator – Example 1
(Cathode Ray Tube)
The cathode ray tube is a linear accelerator
found in many TVs, computer monitors, etc.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom-smasher2.htm
Linear Accelerator - Example 2
(Stanford Linear Accelerator)
Linear Accelerator - Example 2
(Stanford Linear Accelerator)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LINAC.jpg
Circular Accelerators
Circular accelerators
propel particles along a
circular path using
electromagnets until the
particles reach desired
speeds/energies
Particles are accelerated
in one direction around
the accelerator, while
anti-particles are
accelerated in the
www.fnal.gov
opposite direction
Cyclotron:
 constant B field
 constant RF field in the gap increases energy
 radius increases proportionally to energy
 limit: relativistic energy, RF phase out of synch
 In some respects simpler than the synchrotron,
and often used as medical accelerators

Synchro-cyclotron
 Cyclotron with varying RF phase

Betatron
 Acceleration induced by time-varying magnetic
field
 Typical SR centre
Example: European
Synchrotron Radiation
Facility (ESRF),
Grenoble, France

Accelerator + Users Some applications of Synchrotron Radiation:

•material/molecule analysis (UV, X-ray)
•crystallography
•archaeology...
Circular Accelerators, cont.
Circular accelerators are able to bring
particles up to very high speeds (energies) by
allowing each particle to be accelerated for a
longer period of time—around the
accelerator.
The distance around a circular accelerator
can be quite large
 Fermilab’s Tevatron (Near Chicago, USA) - 4 miles (6.44 km)
 CERN’s LHC (Near Geneva, Switzerland) – 16.8 miles (27 km)
Fermilab Accelerators
The protons and anti-protons at Fermilab go through
a series of accelerators in order to accelerate them to
1 TeV (just 200 miles per hour slower than the speed
of light)
At Fermilab, protons are accelerated in one direction
around the ring; anti-protons are accelerated in the
opposite direction
The series of accelerators at Fermilab is illustrated by
an animation located at this website (be sure to press
“play”): http://www-bd.fnal.gov/public/index.html
Particle Accelerators
Around the World
Europe-46
America-46
Asia-13 (india-3)
Africa-1
Austrelia-4
India
Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology (RRCAT), Indore
two synchrotron radiation sources: Indus-1 and Indus-2, serving as a
national facility.
Indus-1 is a 450 MeV, 100 mA electron storage ring emitting radiation
from mid-IR to soft x-ray with a critical wavelength of ~61 Å.
Indus-2 is a 2.5 GeV electron storage ring designed for the production
of x-rays.
Synchrotron radiation emitted from its bending magnets has broad
spectrum covering soft and hard x-ray regions with a critical
wavelength of ~2 Å. With its circumference of 172.5 m, and beam
energy of 2.5 GeV, Indus-2 is presently the largest and the highest
energy particle accelerator in the country.
Inter-University Accelerator Centre,
New Delhi, India
Variable Energy Cyclotron, Calcutta,
India
Collisions
The particle and anti-particle beams are
focused and directed at particular sites
around the ring in order to collide with one
another
These collisions are designed to occur within
detectors, which are able to analyze the
many events (particles created, etc.) that
result from the collisions of the particles and
anti-particles
Basic principles of particle
detection
Particle interactions with matter „
electromagnetic interactions: ‹
excitation ‹
ionization ‹
Cherenkov radiation ‹
transmission radiation ‹bremsstrahlung ‹
photoelectric effect ‹
Compton scattering ‹
pair production „
strong interactions: ‹
secondary hadron production, ‹
hadronic showers
Particle Detectors
Scintillation counter
● Scintillation counter:
􀂄 energy liberated in de-excitation and capture of
ionization electrons emitted as light - “scintillation
light”
􀂄 light channeled to photomultiplier in light guide (e.g.
piece of lucite or optical fibers);
􀂄 scintillating materials: certain crystals (e.g. NaI),
transparent plastics with doping (fluors and
wavelength shifters)
Spark chamber
 Spark chamber
􀂄 gas volume with metal plates (electrodes); filled with gas
(noble gas, e.g. argon)
􀂄 charged particle in gas ⇒ ionization ⇒ electrons liberated; ⇒
string of electron - ion pairs along particle path
􀂄 passage of particle through “trigger counters” (scintillation
counters) triggers HV
􀂄 HV between electrodes ⇒ strong electric field;
􀂄 electrons accelerated in electric field ⇒ can liberate
other electrons by ionization which in turn are accelerated and
ionize ⇒ “avalanche of electrons”, eventually formation of
plasma between electrodes along particle path;
􀂄 gas conductive along particle path ⇒ electric breakdown ⇒
discharge ⇒ spark
􀂄 HV turned off to avoid discharge in whole gas volume
 Cloud chamber
􀂄 Container filled with gas (e.g. air), plus vapor close
to its dew point (saturated)
􀂄 Passage of charged particle ⇒ ionization;
􀂄 Ions form seeds for condensation ⇒ condensation
takes place along path of particle ⇒ path of particle becomes
visible as chain of droplets
 bubble chamber
􀂄 Vessel, filled (e.g.) with liquid hydrogen at a temperature
above the normal boiling point but held under a pressure of about
10 atmospheres by a large piston to prevent boiling.
􀂄 When particles have passed, and possibly interacted in the
chamber, the piston is moved to reduce the pressure, allowing
bubbles to develop along particle tracks.
􀂄 After about 3 milliseconds have elapsed for bubbles
to grow, tracks are photographed using flash photography. Several
cameras provide stereo views of the tracks.
􀂄 The piston is then moved back to recompress the liquid and
collapse the bubbles before boiling can occur.
● Invented by Glaser in 1952 (when he was drinking
beer)
awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physics
Modern Particle Detectors
The large detectors are
able to trace and
characterize the
particles that result
from the collisions
The picture to the right
shows the 5,000-ton
CDF Collider Detector at
Fermilab
400,000 proton-
antiproton collisions
occur each second in
this detector http://www.fnal.gov/pub/about/tour/index.html
 Particle Detectors, cont.
By analyzing the
nature and type of
particles resulting
from the collisions,
scientists are able to
learn much about
matter at a more
fundamental level
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/now/live_events/index.html
CERN Accelerators and
Detectors
The diagram to the
right shows the
accelerators and
detectors at CERN near
Geneva, Switzerland
The LHC is the largest
circular accelerator at
CERN and is to begin
operation in 2007
CMS and ATLAS are two
of the five examples of
detectors approved at
CERN for the LHC
Fermilab Accelerators and
Detectors
The most powerful
accelerator (the
Tevatron) in the US is
at Fermilab
The diagram to the
right shows the series
of accelerators
(including the Main
Injector and Tevatron)
and detectors (including
CDF and DZERO) at
Fermilab
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/about/whatis/picturebook/descriptions/00_635.html
 Neutrinos get under your
skin!
Every cm2 of Earth
surface is crossed every
second by more than 10 Within your body at any
billion (1010) neutrinos instant: roughly 30 million
produced in the Sun neutrinos from the Big
Bang

1014 neutrinos
per second from Sun
n
are zipping through you

No worries!
Neutrinos do not harm us.
Our bodies are transparent to neutrinos
First neutrino detection
(Reines, Cowan 1953)
E = 0.5 MeV
n + p  e+ + n
 detect 0.5 MeV -rays from e+e–  
(t = 0)
 neutron “thermalization” followed
by capture in Cd nuclei  emission
of delayed -rays (average delay ~30 s)

2m Event rate at the Savannah River

H2O + nuclear power plant:
CdCl2 3.0  0.2 events / hour
(after subracting event rate measure
with reactor OFF )
I, II, III:
Liquid scintillator in agreement with expectations
Digital Optical Module (DOM)
Accelerators and Detectors as
Giant Microscopes
Together, particle
accelerators and detectors
have helped scientists
discover very small building
blocks of matter
For instance, scientists now
think that protons within
atoms are made up of even
smaller particles known as
quarks
Check out
www.particleadventure.org
for more information
http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/theory/fundamental.html
Webpages of interest „
http://www.fnal.gov (Fermilab homepage)
http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~wahl/Quarknet (has links to many
particle physics sites) „
http://www.fnal.gov/pub/tour.html (Fermilab particle physics
tour) „
http://ParticleAdventure.org/ (Lawrence Berkeley Lab.)
http://www.cern.ch (CERN -- European Laboratory for Particle
Physics)