Accelerators of charged particles: from Rutherford experiments to the Large Hadron Collider

In Dubna, Moscow region, on 19 December 2020, scientists started working with a beam of helium ions injected in the Booster synchrotron, the first of the three ring accelerators of the NICA project.

In just 90 years since the first particle accelerator, physics has come to the modelling of processes occurring in stars from the study of the atomic structure. A scientist, specialist in the fields of accelerator physics and engineering Igor Nikolaevich Meshkov told PostNauka why scientists started accelerating and colliding particles at the beginning of the XX century, how colliders differ from accelerators, and why projects like NICA and the Large Hadron Collider are necessary.

Igor Nikolaevich Meshkov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, RAS Academician, a chief researcher at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Scientific Leader of the NICA accelerator complex.

Full article is available on the website of PostNauka.

This is the material from the guide “Atoms of Science” dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the nuclear industry. The guide’s partner is Rosatom.