WHAT IS A PARTICLE ACCELERATOR?
 
Particle accelerators are devices that accelerate charged particles using electric and magnetic fields. These can be used to accelerate a particle almost to the speed of light. Particle accelerators commonly bring to mind high energy machines, like those used in experimental physics(atom smashers), but also include everyday low energy particle accelerators found in a tv(cathode ray tube) and x-ray generators. This webpage will examine the basic principles found in a high energy particle accelerator, like an "atom smasher."
 
There are two basic types of particle accelerators, categorized by the path the particle is accelerated in rather than differences in how they work. There are linear particle accelerators(linacs), such as the Stanford Linear Accelerator(an electron-positron collider), which is 2 miles long. In a linac, as its name would suggest, the particle is accelerated in a straight line.

 
The Stanford Linear Accelerator

There are also synchrotrons, in which particles are accelerated circularly. In this way, a particle accelerates continuously. The problem, however, is that the particle is moving in a circle and accelerating towards the center and a lot of energy is lost in synchotron radiation. This can be useful, however, if the point is to use that high-energy radiation for something(like x-rays).
Finally, cyclotrons accelerate particles in a spiral, which allows a longer path for the particle to be accelerated in a smaller space(rather than using a very very long path line in a linac) so it can be more compact than an accelerator of equal capacity