Proposed mini particle accelerator at CERN is approved for funding

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.