Un acelerador de partículas es un dispositivo que utiliza campos electromagnéticos para acelerar partículas cargadas a altas velocidades, y así, colisionarlas con otras partículas. De esta manera, se generan multitud de nuevas partículas que -generalmente- son muy inestables y duran menos de un segundo, esto permite estudiar más a fondo las partículas que fueron colisionadas por medio de las que fueron generadas. Hay dos tipos básicos de aceleradores de partículas: los lineales y los circulares. El tubo de rayos catódicos de un televisor es una forma simple de acelerador de partículas. Los aceleradores de partículas imitan, en cierta forma, la acción de los rayos cósmicos sobre la atmósfera terrestre, lo cual produce al azar una lluvia de partículas exóticas e inestables. Sin embargo, los aceleradores prestan un entorno mucho más controlado para estudiar estas partículas generadas, y su proceso de desintegración. Ese estudio de partículas, tanto inestables como estables, puede ser en un futuro útil para el desarrollo de la medicina, la exploración espacial, tecnología electrónica, etcétera. Véase también: Lista de aceleradores en física de partículas

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A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to nearly light speed and to contain them in well-defined beams.Large accelerators are used in particle physics as colliders (e.g. the LHC at CERN, KEKB at KEK in Japan, RHIC at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Tevatron at Fermilab), or as synchrotron light sources for the study of condensed matter physics. Smaller particle accelerators are used in a wide variety of applications, including particle therapy for oncological purposes, radioisotope production for medical diagnostics, ion implanters for manufacture of semiconductors, and accelerator mass spectrometers for measurements of rare isotopes such as radiocarbon. There are currently more than 30,000 accelerators in operation around the world. There are two basic classes of accelerators: electrostatic and electrodynamic (or electromagnetic) accelerators. Electrostatic accelerators use static electric fields to accelerate particles. The most common types are the Cockcroft–Walton generator and the Van de Graaff generator. A small-scale example of this class is the cathode ray tube in an ordinary old television set. The achievable kinetic energy for particles in these devices is determined by the accelerating voltage, which is limited by electrical breakdown. Electrodynamic or electromagnetic accelerators, on the other hand, use changing electromagnetic fields (either magnetic induction or oscillating radio frequency fields) to accelerate particles. Since in these types the particles can pass through the same accelerating field multiple times, the output energy is not limited by the strength of the accelerating field. This class, which was first developed in the 1920s, is the basis for most modern large-scale accelerators. Rolf Widerøe, Gustav Ising, Leó Szilárd, Max Steenbeck, and Ernest Lawrence are considered pioneers of this field, conceiving and building the first operational linear particle accelerator, the betatron, and the cyclotron. Because colliders can give evidence of the structure of the subatomic world, accelerators were commonly referred to as atom smashers in the 20th century. Despite the fact that most accelerators (but not ion facilities) actually propel subatomic particles, the term persists in popular usage when referring to particle accelerators in general.

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