An apparatus for increasing the kinetic energies of charged particles. Particle accelerators are used extensively in both nuclear physics, to investigate nuclear reactions, and particle physics, to search for new particles. These are two types: linear accelerators and cyclic accelerators. See cyclotron; linear accelerator; synchrocyclotron; synchrotron.
http://www-elsa.physik.uni-bonn.de/accelerator_list.html A list of world particle accelerators and accelerator laboratories, with links, from the ELSA website at the University of Bonn