synchrotron (redirected from synchrotrons)

syn·chro·tron  (sngkr-trn, sn-)

n.

An accelerator in which charged particles are accelerated around a fixed circular path by an electric field and held to the path by an increasing magnetic field.

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synchrotron  (sngkr-trn)

A type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles (generally protons) in a circular path. Unlike cyclotrons and synchrocyclotrons, in which particles follow a spiral path, synchrotrons consist of a single ring-shaped tube through which the particles loop numerous times, guided by precisely synchronized magnetic fields and accelerated at various points in the loop by electric field bursts. Synchrotrons are currently the most powerful particle accelerators, and the study of high-energy collisions driven by synchrotrons has lead to the discovery of many subatomic particles. See also cyclotronsynchrocyclotron See Note at particle accelerator.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

synchrotron - cyclotron in which the electric field is maintained at a constant frequency cosmotron - a large proton synchrotron; uses frequency modulation of an electric field to accelerate protons cyclotron - an accelerator that imparts energies of several million electron-volts to rapidly moving particles