Why the cyclotron in Chandigarh has a special place in science history
The insides of the cyclotron (Image courtesy Jahnavi Phalkey)Premium
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In 1967, one of the world’s oldest particle accelerators, built in the 1930s, was sent from the University of Rochester, USA to be housed at Panjab University, Chandigarh. Invented by American nuclear scientist Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, this particular type of particle accelerator, also known as a cyclotron, is an apparatus in which charged atomic and subatomic particles are accelerated by an alternating electric field while following an outward spiral or circular path in a magnetic field. Cyclotrons are built on the same principles as more famous particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), but on a smaller scale, used not only for conducting experiments in nuclear physics but also f