Nature: Because particle accelerators are growing ever larger and more expensive, several research groups have been experimenting with a potentially smaller design, called a plasma wakefield accelerator. Conventional colliders use electric fields to accelerate charged particles down metal-walled tunnels. But when the electric field gets too strong, longer tunnels are required to avoid sparking. Now CERN, home to the world’s largest and most powerful accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, has received funding approval for what could perhaps be one of the smallest. The Advanced Wakefield Experiment, or AWAKE, will send a pulse of protons through a plasma of ionized gas, which causes the positively and negatively charged particles to oscillate and create waves of alternating charge. Particles injected into the resulting electric field ride the waves and accelerate. Such a design could achieve accelerations 1000 times greater than conventional machines over the same distance.
Despite the tumultuous history of the near-Earth object’s parent body, water may have been preserved in the asteroid for about a billion years.
October 08, 2025 08:50 PM
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Physics Today - The Week in Physics
The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.