Particle accelerators are often framed as exotic machines built only to chase obscure particles, but they are really precision tools that use electric fields and magnets to steer tiny beams of matter ...

Banks of computer screens stacked two and three high line the walls. The screens are covered with numbers and graphs that are unintelligible to an untrained eye. But they tell a story to the operators ...

Researchers have long thought pure niobium superconducting radiofrequency cavities were best for particle accelerators. Researchers are now using a toolkit to learn how to add impurities to the ...

This sample of niobium has been treated in a process that is typical for preparing particle accelerator components. Tests have revealed how adding oxygen to such components makes them more efficient.

Semiconductor chips are among the smallest and most detailed objects humans can manufacture. Shrinking the scale and upping the complexity is a fight against the limits of physics, and optical ...

A beam of electrons crossed just a few millimeters of plasma, then helped trigger an effect that usually belongs to massive research sites. In this case, the light produced fell in the extreme ...

Carsten P Welsch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

There is technology being perfected to make particle accelerators 100-1000 times lower cost. This would enable production of nuclear material for space propulsion that could reach up to 0.5% of light ...

Every time two beams of particles collide inside an accelerator, the universe lets us in on a little secret. Sometimes it's a particle no one has ever seen. Other times, it's a fleeting glimpse of ...