An international team of researchers is pushing forward with plans for a radically smaller, cheaper particle accelerator by using a powerful technique that’s been decades in the making, known as the wakefield acceleration.
The approach, which scientists have studied since the 1970s but is now making rapid advances, involves electrons riding a wave of plasma, an ionized gas created using either another particle beam or a laser.
Unlike conventional accelerator cavities that use electromagnetic fields to propel particles – like those at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – are prone to sparking at high field strengths, plasma-filled modules can withstand much more intense conditions.
This allows Wakefield technology to accelerate particles up to 1,000 times faster than conventional methods within just a few centimeters. If successfully scaled, it could transform today’s massive, kilometer-long accelerators into compact, lab-sized machines, thus cutting costs and reshaping the future of particle physics.
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