Particle beam

A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles, in many cases moving at near the speed of light. A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles, in many cases moving at near the speed of light. There is a difference between the creation and control of charged particle beams and neutral particle beams, as only the first type can be manipulated to a sufficient extent by devices based on electromagnetism. The manipulation and diagnostics of charged particle beams at high kinetic energies using particle accelerators are main topics of accelerator physics. Charged particles such as electrons, positrons, and protons may be separated from their common surrounding. This can be accomplished by e.g. thermionic emission or arc discharge. The following devices are commonly used as sources for particle beams: Charged beams may be further accelerated by use of high resonant, sometimes also superconducting, microwave cavities. These devices accelerate particles by interaction with an electromagnetic field. Since the wavelength of hollow macroscopic, conducting devices is in the radio frequency band, the design of such cavities and other RF devices is also a part of accelerator physics. More recently, plasma acceleration has emerged as a possibility to accelerate particles in a plasma medium, using the electromagnetic energy of pulsed high-power laser systems or the kinetic energy of other charged particles. This technique is under active development, but cannot provide reliable beams of sufficient quality at present. High-energy particle beams are used for particle physics experiments in large facilities; the most common examples being the Large Hadron Collider and the Tevatron. Electron beams are employed in synchrotron light sources to produce electromagnetic radiation with a continuous spectrum over a wide frequency band which is called synchrotron radiation. This radiation may be used at beamlines of the synchrotron storage ring for a variety of experiments. Energetic particle beams consisting of protons, neutrons, or positive ions (also called particle microbeams) may also be used for cancer treatment in particle therapy. Many phenomena in astrophysics are attributed to particle beams of various kinds.Perhaps of these the most iconic is the solar Type III radio burst, due to a mildly relativistic electron beam.