Question

Synchrotron radiation takes energy from an accelerator beam and is related to acceleration. Why would you expect the problem to be more severe for electron accelerators than proton accelerators?

a) Electrons have higher charge-to-mass ratio
b) Protons have higher charge-to-mass ratio
c) Electrons have larger gyroradius
d) Protons have larger gyroradius

Answer 1

Synchrotron radiation is more problematic for electron accelerators due to electrons having a higher charge-to-mass ratio, which leads to more energy loss in the form of radiation when they are accelerated compared to heavier protons.

Step-by-step explanation:

Synchrotron radiation arises when charged particles are accelerated and is a significant issue for particle accelerators because it takes energy away from the beam. The problem of synchrotron radiation is more severe for electron accelerators than for proton accelerators primarily because electrons have a much higher charge-to-mass ratio compared to protons. When a charged particle is accelerated, such as being bent by a magnetic field, it radiates energy in the form of synchrotron radiation. Since the power radiated is inversely proportional to the mass of the charged particle to the fourth power, given the same energy, accelerators for lighter particles like electrons will lose more energy to synchrotron radiation than accelerators for heavier particles like protons.