Particle accelerator

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1. You do not accelerate a photon. It is already moving at the speed of light. Nor do you increase its energy (except maybe through non-linear optics?)
2. You cannot convert an electron to a proton. Conservation of Fermion/Boson count prohibits it. You can run an electron into a target to cause a proton to be knocked loose.
 
steve66 said:
Look at page 6 of this link:

https://www.isotopes.gov/outreach/reports/Medical_Isotope_Production_Use.pdf

I believe the one in Chris's photo is a Proton Cyclotron, and it does create a proton beam.
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Nothing there says anyone is turning electrons into protons.

Jim M426 said:
During that run, the particle is changed from an electron to a proton.
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Here is info about the APS, along with a better copy of the APS diagram:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Photon_Source

Which is an entirely different machine than a proton cyclotron, which is probably the thing in Chris's picture. The APS accelerates electrons, not protons. Lucky Chris, I have always wanted to work on a cyclotron.
 
The reason linear accelerators are used for high energy electron and positron beams is that running electrons in a curved path causes them to emit EM radiation (photons) and lose energy.
Trying to reach high energies in a ring is a losing proposition.
What the APS does is store electrons from many linear accelerator pulses in the large ring, putting enough energy into each pass to offset the radiation losses. When you finally tap the beam to produce photons you get a very high intensity beam for a short time or a weaker beam over a much longer time. It is easier to do many experiments with that than with lots of extremely short pulses that the linac produces.
 
I sent a text to one of their engineers today, I quote;

Actually we accelerate a negative ion, a proton and two electrons then strip away the electrons to "extract" the beam and we hit the "target" material with the protons...

Out of curiosity I asked if they were up and running, when I left the project they were not. The cyclotron and all the associated support equipment was used and came from Orlando and New Jersey. Bear in mind this thing had to sit to allow the radiation to dissipate.
Again I quote;

We have been running things for two weeks. She is a little grumpy about her 4 year abandonment but she is getting better every day...

Gotta love engineers:D
 
chris kennedy said:
I sent a text to one of their engineers today, I quote;

Actually we accelerate a negative ion, a proton and two electrons then strip away the electrons to "extract" the beam and we hit the "target" material with the protons...

Out of curiosity I asked if they were up and running, when I left the project they were not. The cyclotron and all the associated support equipment was used and came from Orlando and New Jersey. Bear in mind this thing had to sit to allow the radiation to dissipate.
Again I quote;

We have been running things for two weeks. She is a little grumpy about her 4 year abandonment but she is getting better every day...

Gotta love engineers:D
Click to expand...

That's great!
 
GoldDigger said:
1. You do not accelerate a photon. It is already moving at the speed of light. Nor do you increase its energy (except maybe through non-linear optics?)
2. You cannot convert an electron to a proton. Conservation of Fermion/Boson count prohibits it. You can run an electron into a target to cause a proton to be knocked loose.
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1. True
2. True

You can create a proton from a hydrogen atom by stripping the electron.
 
ggunn said:
How do you strip two electrons from an atom that only has one?
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Hydrogen anion has two electrons, one proton.

1280px-Ions.svg.png
By Jkwchui - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12617370
 
ggunn said:
Right, but assuming that's what you start with, stripping two electrons from it produces a positive ion, not a negative ion.
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I wasn't assuming, I was responding to what was posted:

I sent a text to one of their engineers today, I quote;

Actually we accelerate a negative ion, a proton and two electrons then strip away the electrons to "extract" the beam and we hit the "target" material with the protons.
Click to expand...
 
Reading all this has cleaned up some of the cobwebs in my brain. I remember standing at the linear accelerator and a scientist telling me they fire an electron and then change the charge to a positron, not proton, as I erroneously stated earlier.

Scientists, I leave the rest in your knowing hands while I count my toes again.
 
Jim M426 said:
Reading all this has cleaned up some of the cobwebs in my brain. I remember standing at the linear accelerator and a scientist telling me they fire an electron and then change the charge to a positron, not proton, as I erroneously stated earlier.

Scientists, I leave the rest in your knowing hands while I count my toes again.
Click to expand...

I once read an essay that speculated that positrons are electrons moving backwards in time, so an event that looks from our perspective like a conversion from electron to positron is actually an electron reversing its direction though spacetime.
 
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