Thread View: sci.physics
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Started by Tom Capurka
Tue, 14 Apr 1992 21:31
terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: Tom Capurka
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 21:31
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 21:31
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Hello, I have a question about particle accelerators: Why does there seem to be a terminal particle energy for a given particle, accelerator, related to the radius of the acclerator? Is this because the radiation caused by the fact that the article is not in an inertial frame gets too large and approaches equilibrium state with the energy input? Whatever the reason, is there any possibility that there exists a yet undiscovered trick around this so that one could have an SSC type acclerator (as far as particle energies are concerned) in a 1 meter box? Or is this impossible in principle, given the state of physics today. Sorry if this is too basic but a good library is far away and this may turn out to be more fun. Regd's Tom C. <capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com>
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: Jim Carr
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 13:55
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 13:55
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In article <1992Apr14.213121.17723@lmpsbbs.mot.com> capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com (Tom Capurka) writes: >Hello, >I have a question about particle accelerators: Why does there seem to be >a terminal particle energy for a given particle, accelerator, related to >the radius of the acclerator? Is this because the radiation caused by >the fact that the article is not in an inertial frame gets too large and >approaches equilibrium state with the energy input? Yes. And this "bremsstrahlung" (literally 'braking-radiation') that arises from acceleration of the particle around a curve depends on mass. Hence an electron synchrotron must have a larger radius than a proton synchrotron with the same energy. >Whatever the reason, is there any possibility that there exists >a yet undiscovered trick around this so that one could have an SSC type >acclerator (as far as particle energies are concerned) in a 1 meter box? Highly unlikely. What people are working on are compact linear accelerators (where this problem will not appear). The effort is on the development of RF cavities that provide extremely high electric field gradients while maintaining good beam properties. >Sorry if this is too basic but a good library is far away and this may turn >out to be more fun. The best source is probably articles in Physics Today, where you can see nice color pictures of things like RF quadrupoles. There was a cover story some years back and occaisional news stories about things like planned linear colliders. Maybe one of the SLAC HEP-cats can add some to this. I think the former USSR was planning to build one at Serpukhov. -- J. A. Carr | "The New Frontier of which I jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu | speak is not a set of promises Florida State University B-186 | -- it is a set of challenges." Supercomputer Computations Research Institute | John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)
terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: draper
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 17:47
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 17:47
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In article <1992Apr14.213121.17723@lmpsbbs.mot.com>, capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com (Tom Capurka) writes: > Hello, > I have a question about particle accelerators: Why does there seem to be > a terminal particle energy for a given particle, accelerator, related to > the radius of the acclerator? Is this because the radiation caused by > the fact that the article is not in an inertial frame gets too large and > approaches equilibrium state with the energy input? > Whatever the reason, is there any possibility that there exists > a yet undiscovered trick around this so that one could have an SSC type > acclerator (as far as particle energies are concerned) in a 1 meter box? > Or is this impossible in principle, given the state of physics today. > > Sorry if this is too basic but a good library is far away and this may turn > out to be more fun. > I saw an answer posted about bremsstrahlung, which does pertain but isn't exactly to the point. For circular accelerators, the bulk of the ring is not devoted to accelerating elements (RF cavities), but to steering and focussing magnets that keep the particles travelling around in a circle so that they can return to the RF cavity for another kick in the butt. The analogy is that schoolyard game tetherball, where a ball is tied to a pole by a rope, and players slap the ball every time it comes around to get it really going. For the Tevatron, for example, the protons circulate about a million times through the RF cavity before they make it up to 900GeV. The limitation, then, is the magnetic strength of the bending magnets. The expression for this is p = q*B*r (Elementary Physics II) where p is the momentum of the particle, q its charge, B the magnetic field, and r is the radius of curvature. For a synchrotron, B increases as p increases, up to the limit the magnets can provide. The research into "table-top" accelerators takes the approach of doing all the acceleration in one linear shot, with some kick-ass accelerating fields, as opposed to the circular technique, which uses the same modest accelerating field over and over and over again. The comment about bremsstrahlung does have some bearing on the radius in the sense that at high enough momentum (or, more accurately, high enough Lorentz factor gamma), trying to squeeze down the size of the circle by using stronger magnets just doesn't pay off, because a smaller circle also means more energy loss by radiation, to the point where the accelerating cavity produces no net gain in energy. Case in point is HERA, which uses the same tunnel for accelerating 820GeV protons and 30GeV electrons. The magnets for the protons are high-field superconducting magnets, the magnets for the electrons are lower-field conventional magnets. Why not use superconducting magnets for the electrons to get a higher electron energy? Because bremsstrahlung for electrons is so much worse than for protons. It doesn't pay to do it. Paul Draper University of Texas at Arlington Draper@sscvx1.ssc.gov
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: Jim Carr
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:14
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:14
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In article <1992Apr15.114716.1@sscvx1.ssc.gov> draper@sscvx1.ssc.gov writes: > >I saw an answer posted about bremsstrahlung, which does pertain but isn't >exactly to the point. .... Mea culpa. Proton machines are never really bremsstrahlung limited, but electron machines are always limited by radiation. The mass factor is huge. (It has been too long since I did that computation!) That is why, as Draper points out, work on proton machines centers on magnet development while electron people are thinking about two linacs pointed at each other with novel acceleration technologies used also. So if the question is "why can't I do e+ e- and make toponium", the answer is bremsstrahlung, but if it is "why is the SSC so big", the answer is magnets. And magnets tend to be limited by material properties, if that is your next question! -- J. A. Carr | "The New Frontier of which I jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu | speak is not a set of promises Florida State University B-186 | -- it is a set of challenges." Supercomputer Computations Research Institute | John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: John W. Cobb
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 18:01
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 18:01
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In article <1992Apr14.213121.17723@lmpsbbs.mot.com>, capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com (Tom Capurka) writes: |>Hello, |>I have a question about particle accelerators: Why does there seem to be |>a terminal particle energy for a given particle, accelerator, related to |>the radius of the acclerator? Is this because the radiation caused by |>the fact that the article is not in an inertial frame gets too large and |>approaches equilibrium state with the energy input? Well I'm not an accelerator physicist, but yes that's my understanding. If you look in Jackson, you can see expressions for ultrarelativistic synchotron radiation. The energy radiated goes down with increased mass to charge ratio. Thus you can get higher energy protons in a ring then you can electrons. This is why many of the electron expts. are linear (SLAC). Note, you also get some radiation b/c of linear acceleration, but it is usually a much smaler effect. |>Whatever the reason, is there any possibility that there exists |>a yet undiscovered trick around this so that one could have an SSC type |>acclerator (as far as particle energies are concerned) in a 1 meter box? |>Or is this impossible in principle, given the state of physics today. Well, you coudn't put a colliding ring w/ SSC type energies into a box with getting a great deal of radiation. So the competing effect you describe above would be imensely increased. You might think of doing a SLAC type accelerator in 1 meter. However, now you need to accelerate to 10 TeV in 1 meter. That means that the electric field gradient causing the acceleration needs to be 10E13 V/m. This is a huge electric field (it would probably be RF and not DC). BY comparison, the electric field in an atom is on the order of 13eV/Angstrom or ~10e9 V/m. So if you try to put a 10 TeV SLAC in a box your accelerationg field will suck electrons off of your vacuum surfaces and you will get electrical breakdown. So the trick you ask for seems impossible :<. But wait, what if you use a plasma instead of a vacuum to guide your beam. Then there is no problem with breakdown (you already are ionized). If you send a strong Laser light pulse just ahead of your beam, it may cause a Wake of extremely strong electric fields. Then you might be able to get the SSC into a 1 meter box. These ideas have been around a while. It's called the laser wakefield accelerator. If you interested, look in the citation indices under John Dawson, UCLA; Toshi Tajima, Texas; and Chan Joshi UCLA. My understanding is that both the theoretical and experimental work is promising but that the problem is really difficult, so my opinion as ot whether it will <ever> work is a definite maybe. You might think of some other tricks also. The two big problems you need to finesse are 1) a collider must reduce (or re-absorb?) its own radiation so that you can tolerate a smaller radius of curvature (and thus decrease the size); or 2) you must increase the accelerating gradient in a linear device to shorten the length (i.e. decrease the size). |>Tom C. <capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com> John W. Cobb jwc@fusion.ph.utexas.edu
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: draper
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:54
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:54
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In article <70425@ut-emx.uucp>, johncobb@ut-emx.cc.utexas.edu (John W. Cobb) writes: > In article <1992Apr14.213121.17723@lmpsbbs.mot.com>, > capurka@ssd.comm.mot.com (Tom Capurka) writes: > |>Hello, > |>I have a question about particle accelerators: Why does there seem to be > |>a terminal particle energy for a given particle, accelerator, related to > |>the radius of the acclerator? Is this because the radiation caused by... > > Well, you coudn't put a colliding ring w/ SSC type energies into a box > with getting a great deal of radiation. So the competing effect you > describe above would be imensely increased... > > You might think of some other tricks also. The two big problems you need to > finesse are 1) a collider must reduce (or re-absorb?) its own radiation... Just to reiterate a point I made earlier, the limitation for an SSC-type machine is NOT the radiation, but the magnetic field used to constrain the beam into a circle. The magnetic field required to collapse a 20TeV ring to the size of a meter radius, whether it's electrons or protons or Buicks (the latter suffering almost no synchrotron radiation at all), would be 60,000 Tesla! Now in fact, for the SSC, the energies of the proton are high enough that synchrotron energy losses are not completely ignorable (left as an exercise), and this is why the magnets are not absolutely the strongest available...i.e. the ring as designed was allowed to expand a little to lessen the losses due to radiation. But believe me, the magnets will run out of steam long before you ever worry about vaporizing the beam tube walls with gamma rays. Paul Draper University of Texas at Arlington draper@sscvx1.ssc.gov Mythink. Not UTAthink, not SSCthink, not GOVthink. Happy now?
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: Jonathan M. Gilligan
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 01:50
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 01:50
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In article <70425@ut-emx.uucp> johncobb@ut-emx.cc.utexas.edu (John W. Cobb) writes: [question about syncrhotron radiation limits on particle accelerators] > >|>Whatever the reason, is there any possibility that there exists >|>a yet undiscovered trick around this so that one could have an SSC type >|>acclerator (as far as particle energies are concerned) in a 1 meter box? >|>Or is this impossible in principle, given the state of physics today. >Well, you coudn't put a colliding ring w/ SSC type energies into a box >with getting a great deal of radiation. So the competing effect you >describe above would be imensely increased. You might think of doing a This is not practical, but just for fun, suppose that the walls of the beamline were made of some material that would form an extremely high-Q cavity for the synchrotron radiation. Then there would be a lot of radiation, but it would be stored in the volume of the ring. If you could engineer the phases correctly, you could get acceleration out of it (I'm not talking perpetual motion here --- just a case where the acceleration from the radiation field balances the loss to particle kinetic energy due to emitting radiation a la thermal equilibrium within a black body) your losses now are only the absorptive losses in the walls of the ring, but I'm assuming (ridiculously, to be sure) very high Q. Of course, the high-Q cavity would have a narrow bandwidth compared to the bandwidth of the emitted synchrotron radiation, but this would just mean that the particle could not emit in certain parts of the spectrum We already know that atoms will not radiate in below-cutoff cavities. Kleppner and Hinds & Haroche have demonstrated this. The problem is making a cavity with high-Q across the bandwidth of the synchrotron radiation. There's no such thing that I know of. ---Jon Disclaimer: The government probably disagrees with my opinions.
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: Jonathan M. Gilligan
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 02:02
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 02:02
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In article <1992Apr16.155454.1@sscvx1.ssc.gov> draper@sscvx1.ssc.gov writes: >Just to reiterate a point I made earlier, the limitation for an SSC-type >machine is NOT the radiation, but the magnetic field used to constrain the beam >into a circle. The magnetic field required to collapse a 20TeV ring to the size >of a meter radius, whether it's electrons or protons or Buicks (the latter >suffering almost no synchrotron radiation at all), would be 60,000 Tesla! OK, maybe we can't get 20 TeV electrons into a meter even without synchrotron radiation. However, although I'm a lowly atomic physicist everyone I talk to in particle physics would prefer to look for new particles with e+e- colliders, and there the practical limitation _is_ synchrotron radiation. The only reason to use protons, I'm told, is 1) to study proton structure 2) to avoid synchrotron losses By the way, I can make my coffee cup move in a 1-meter circle at millions of TeV with no difficulty (a million TeV = 0.1 Joule) so the only problem with Buicks is making them small enough. ---Jon
Re: terminal particle energy for accelerators
Author: SCOTT I CHASE
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 19:02
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 19:02
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In article <1992Apr16.155454.1@sscvx1.ssc.gov>, draper@sscvx1.ssc.gov writes... > >Just to reiterate a point I made earlier, the limitation for an SSC-type >machine is NOT the radiation, but the magnetic field used to constrain the beam >into a circle. The magnetic field required to collapse a 20TeV ring to the size >of a meter radius, whether it's electrons or protons or Buicks (the latter >suffering almost no synchrotron radiation at all), would be 60,000 Tesla! > Of course, if you had an accelerator that could yield 20 TeV/meter, then there would be no need to make it a ring. You would just make a 100 meter long linear collider with 2000 TeV per beam. Accelerators are only rings in the first place because the feeble accelerating gradients must be applied over and over again to get the high energies needed for useful physics. -Scott -------------------- Scott I. Chase SICHASE@CSA2.LBL.GOV
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