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linear accelerator
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linear accelerator The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center has a 3.2-kilometre linear electron accelerator, the longest linear accelerator in the world.
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linear accelerator
linear accelerator Linear accelerator at Stanford (University) Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, Calif.

linear accelerator

physics
Also known as: linac, linear resonance accelerator
Written by
Christine Sutton
Science writer. Research Associate, Department of Nuclear Physics, University of Oxford. Author of The Particle Connection and Spaceship Neutrino.
Christine Sutton
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

linear accelerator, type of particle accelerator (q.v.) that imparts a series of relatively small increases in energy to subatomic particles as they pass through a sequence of alternating electric fields set up in a linear structure. The small accelerations add together to give the particles a greater energy than could be achieved by the voltage used in one section alone. In 1924 Gustaf Ising, a Swedish physicist, proposed accelerating particles using alternating electric fields, with...

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