ABSTRACT
A particle accelerator, sometimes called an "atom smasher," is an electromagnetic machine that produces beams of high-energy subatomic particles such as protons or electrons. These particle beams are used for studies in nuclear physics and, at very high energies, for studies of
elementary subatomic particles. The accepted energy unit for a particle accelerator is the MeV, or one million electron volts, the energy acquired by a charged particle when it traverses a potential of one million volts. The largest accelerators, capable of energies of trillions of electron volts, are located at Fermilab in the United States and at C E R N laboratories in Switzerland. Particle accelerators can either be linear or circular.
