Beschleunigerring

A Beschleunigerring, or accelerator ring, is a type of particle accelerator that guides charged particles in a closed path, typically a circular or oval shape. This design allows particles to gain energy by passing through accelerating electric fields multiple times. Magnets are crucial components of an accelerator ring, used to bend the particle beams into their curved trajectory and to focus them.

The principle behind accelerator rings is to accelerate particles in stages. As the particles circulate, they repeatedly encounter radiofrequency cavities that provide bursts of electric energy, increasing their momentum with each pass. This continuous acceleration allows beams to reach very high energies.

Accelerator rings are used in various scientific applications. They are essential for fundamental physics research, such as particle physics experiments where high-energy collisions are studied to understand the basic constituents of matter and the forces governing them. They also play a role in materials science, generating synchrotron radiation, a powerful form of electromagnetic radiation used for probing the structure of materials. Furthermore, accelerator rings find applications in medicine, for example, in the production of radioisotopes for diagnostic imaging and cancer therapy. Synchrotron light sources are a prominent example of accelerator rings built for scientific research.