A list of

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

s used for

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

experiments. Some early particle accelerators that more properly did

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies t ...

, but existed prior to the separation of particle physics from that field, are also included. Although a modern accelerator complex usually has several stages of accelerators, only accelerators whose output has been used directly for experiments are listed.

Early accelerators

These all used single beams with fixed targets. They tended to have very briefly run, inexpensive, and unnamed experiments.

Cyclotrons

^{/sup> The magnetic pole pieces and return yoke from the 60-inch cyclotron were later moved to UC Davis and incorporated into a 76-inch isochronous cyclotron which is still in use today

Other early accelerator types

Synchrotrons

Fixed-target accelerators

More modern accelerators that were also run in fixed target mode; often, they will also have been run as collider

A collider is a type of particle accelerator which brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Colliders may either be ring accelerators or linear accelerators.

Colliders are used as a research tool in particl ...
s, or accelerated particles for use in subsequently built colliders.

High intensity hadron accelerators (Meson and neutron sources)

Electron and low intensity hadron accelerators

Colliders

Electron–positron colliders

Hadron colliders

Electron-proton colliders

Light sources

Hypothetical accelerators

Besides the real accelerators listed above, there are hypothetical accelerators often used
as hypothetical examples or optimistic projects by particle physicists.
* Eloisatron (Eurasiatic Long Intersecting Storage Accelerator) was a project of INFN

The Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN; "National Institute for Nuclear Physics") is the coordinating institution for nuclear, particle, theoretical and astroparticle physics in Italy.
History
INFN was founded on 8 August 1951, to furt ...
headed by Antonio Zichichi at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice

Erice (; scn, Èrici) is a historic town and '' comune'' in the province of Trapani, Sicily, in southern Italy.
Geography
The main town of Erice is located on top of Mount Erice, at around above sea level, overlooking the city of Trapani ...
, Sicily

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. The center-of-mass energy was planned to be 200 TeV, and the size was planned to span parts of Europe

Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and Asia

Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
.
* Fermitron was an accelerator sketched by Enrico Fermi

Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" an ...
on a notepad in the 1940s proposing an accelerator in stable orbit around the Earth.
* The undulator radiation collider is a design for an accelerator with a center-of-mass energy around the GUT scale. It would be light-weeks across and require the construction of a Dyson swarm

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a spacefaring civilization would mee ...
around the Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
.
* Planckatron is an accelerator with a center-of-mass energy of the order of the Planck scale. It is estimated that the radius of the Planckatron would have to be roughly the radius of the Milky Way. It would require so much energy to run that it could only be built by at least a Kardashev Type II civilization.[1503.01509] SETI at Planck Energy: When Particle Physicists Become Cosmic Engineers
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* Arguably also in this category falls the Zevatron, a hypothetical source for observed ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.

See also

* List of accelerator mass spectrometry facilities

The following list of accelerator mass spectrometry facilities includes research centers that employ accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS).

Accelerator mass spectrometry is a form of mass spectrometry that accelerates ions to extraordinarily high k ...

* List of synchrotron radiation facilities
This is a table of synchrotrons and storage rings used as synchrotron radiation sources, and free electron laser

A free-electron laser (FEL) is a (fourth generation) light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An FE ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

*Judy Goldhaber. October 9, 1992
Bevalac Had 40-Year Record of Historic Discoveries

High-energy collider parameters
from th
Particle Data Group

Lawrence and his laboratory
– a history of the early years of accelerator physics at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

A brief history and review of accelerators (11 pgs, PDF file)

Accelerators and detectors named Mark at SLAC
* Lawson, J. D. (1997),
Early British Synchrotrons, An Informal History
, ccessed 17 May 2009
A FEW QUICK FACTS ABOUT THE TRIUMF CYCLOTRON

Accelerators in particle physics
*
*}