Accelerators and Beams: Tools of Discovery and Innovation

Particle accelerators range in scale from sub-mm structures created using lithography on a silicon chip to the 27-km Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland based on superconducting magnets. Some accelerators generate beams that are only nanometers in size while others are used to make the brightest x-ray beams in the world. Accelerators are used for medicine, security, and industry as well as discovery science. A recent study shows that nearly 30% of the Nobel Prizes in Physics had a direct contribution from accelerators. This course will cover the fundamentals of particle beam acceleration and control. Topics will include radio-frequency acceleration, alternate gradient focusing, and collective effects where electromagnetic fields from the particle beam act back on the beam or on adjacent beams. Some experimental studies of beam physics may be performed at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Prerequisites: Special relativity at the level of Physics 61 or 70, or equivalent. Physics 120 and 121, or EE 142 and 242; Physics 121/EE 142 can be taken concurrently with class.