Physicists Build Super-Powerful Tabletop Particle Accelerator
2 GeV Tabletop Accelerator In comparison to the conventional 2 GeV accelerators which span two football fields, the tabletop accelerator built by physicists at The University of Texas Austin accelerates electrons over a distance of about one inch. Courtesy of Rafal Zgadzaj Scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have shrunk a high-energy particle accelerator from the length of two football fields to just 1 inch. The latest tabletop particle accelerator, built by physicists at The University of Texas at Austin, can generate energy and speeds hitherto reached only by major facilities hundreds of meters long. The results represent a huge step towards standardizing multi-gigaelectronvolt laser plasma accelerators in labs worldwide. (A gigaelectronvolt is the amount of energy gained or lost by an electron as it moves across an electric potential difference of 1 billion volts. Deep breath. OK.) "We have accelerated about half a billion electrons to 2 gigaelectronvolts over...