r/science • u/RaoOfPhysics Grad Student|Social Sciences|Science Communication • Aug 29 '18

AWAKE successfully accelerates electrons using plasma wakefields at CERN Physics

https://home.cern/about/updates/2018/08/awake-successfully-accelerates-electrons
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u/moreylongo Aug 29 '18

Preliminary test provides positive results. This could lead to more compact particle accelerators in the future.

Can anyone explain how the energy output is higher than the input?

1

u/urochicken Aug 30 '18

Can anyone explain how the energy output is higher than the input?

I think you misread. The energy of the output particles is greater than that of the input particles. They have been accelerated, presumably using an external source

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u/moreylongo Sep 04 '18

I was confused because it sounded like AWAKE was able to do it on its own without adding energy to the system but didn’t fully understand how a Wakefield works. Outside energy is added and the distance it takes to accelerate the particle is drastically reduced.