Patent Application
20130307438
The present invention relates generally to the field of charged particle acceleration, trapping and collisional interaction. And more specifically to a cyclotron Radio Frequency charged particle accelerator that produces charged particle orbits with minimum canonical angular momentum orbits and gyro-phase synchrony.
The present Patent Letters describes an apparatus and method which provides benefits and advantages over the Prior Art with regards acceleration, confinement, trapping neutralization, control and manipulation of charged particle orbits in a vacuum magnetic field. A method and apparatus for acceleration and manipulation of charged particles operating within a solenoid magnetic field having an axis of symmetry and supported within a vacuum space is herein revealed. Acceleration, confinement, trapping, control and manipulation of charged particles is attained by means of application of alternating electric fields to charged particles within a vacuum magnetic field. The Centroidal Cyclotron acts on particle orbits that have low to zero canonical angular momentum. Although an additional benefit is that it may be capable of producing low to zero canonical angular momentum orbits from any prior state of particle orbits. Low or zero canonical angular momentum orbits approach or pass through the magnetic field axis once each cycle. The Centroidal Cyclotron applies an alternating electric field at the cyclotron frequency of the particles between two electrodes, thus achieving acceleration of the particles confined within the vacuum magnetic field. Wherein the vacuum magnetic field has varying values within the vacuum space, the Centroidal Cyclotron, by virtue of varying frequencies may control the positioning of charged particles according to the equation relating cyclotron frequency and magnetic field, as described below.
Cyclotron charged particle accelerators operate on particles within a magnetic field. The cyclotron frequency varies with the magnetic field, while energy (non-relativistic) does not change the cyclotron frequency at a given magnetic field strength. Thus the cyclotron frequency, ω=q/m*B, where q is charge, m is mass and B is the magnetic field value. As can be seen by the above equation, the frequency is energy independent. This fact is critical to the operation of cyclotrons. Radio Frequency (RF) electric fields are used for acceleration of charged particles. In linear accelerators RF fields accelerate charged particles bunches from one RFQ (radio frequency quadruple) to another. RF is also used, more relevantly to the present patent letters, in Cyclotron accelerators as well as Synchrocyclotron accelerators as well as the Isochronous Cyclotron. In the original cyclotron, Lawrence, U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,384, RF energy is applied between two “Dees” which present alternating electric field potentials once each half cycle. The charged particles are inside one or the other Dee as the polarity of the RF signal is reversed. The charged particles are thus accelerated in a plane perpendicular to the magnetic field axis. The charged particles are accelerated twice per revolution and each pass causes the charged particles to assume a larger orbit, until the charged particle's reach the periphery of the field whereupon they are extracted. In the synchrocyclotron the RF frequency changes, because the charged particles are accelerated towards relativistic velocities, resulting in a change of the frequency of rotation, which is independent of energy, and depends only on charge to mass ratio. The Isochronous Cyclotron allows the RF field frequency to remain unchanged despite a relativist increase in apparent mass, by providing an increasing magnetic flux at greater radii. Such accelerators operate on particles that encircle the magnetic field axis, and have not been applied to low or zero canonical angular momentum orbits.
Many papers and patents have been issued regarding the aforementioned family of cyclotron accelerators. Beginning with the works of Leo Szilard and Rolf Wideroe many types of accelerators have been developed. Lawrence, U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,384, introduces the concept of the Cyclotron accelerator, which provides benefits over previous accelerators to produce high energy particles. Utilizing a relatively low voltage to achieve high energy, a cyclotron, by repeated application of the oscillating voltage, produces high energy particles. Because the cyclotron frequency is a function of the charge to mass ratio, as a particle approaches relativistic velocities, the cyclotron frequency changes, limiting the usefulness of the basic cyclotron. To overcome the relativistic limitation Edwin McMillan U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,129, invented the Synchrocyclotron, which allows the cyclotron frequency to change over the period of acceleration. In its turn the Synchrocyclotron suffers from the limitation that, since it changes it's frequency as the particles accelerate, it can only act on a single bunch of particles that have the proper time dependent energy. To overcome this limitation the Isochronous Cyclotron was developed. An example of the Isochronous Cyclotron is found in Delphin U.S. Pat. No. 3,789,335 and Karasawa U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,033, and many others.
No Prior Art has been identified that attempts to produce a cyclotron frequency accelerator for particle orbits that cross the axis of magnetic symmetry. Although a couple of patents that reference devices that confine particles that cross the magnetic axis are W. H. Bennett U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,475 and B. Maglich et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,024, incorporated herein be reference.
Drawing
The present Patent Letters teaches certain benefits and advantages for the acceleration and confinement of charged particles. The Centroidal Cyclotron The Centroid Cyclotron beam accelerator operates on orbits that cross the magnetic field axis once each cycle. Orbits that cross the magnetic field axis once each cycle are referred to as low or zero canonical angular momentum orbits. The charged particles therefore have two distinguishable states, approaching the center and approaching the periphery. This feature is unique to these type of orbits. The RF oscillations are therefore applied between the axis of the magnetic field and the periphery of the charged particles orbits. The Centroidal Cyclotron does not require that the charged particles be shielded from the RF during the cycle transition, as is found in the cyclotron. The charged particles are exposed to the RF energy the entire time that the RF is operating and they are confined in the magnetic field. The Centroid Cyclotron, as is common to RF based cyclotrons in general, only acts positively on charged particles that possess the proper phase. Charged particles that are out of phase are decelerated, causing the charged particles to become in phase with the applied oscillating RF electric field, while those that are in phase are accelerated continuously. Thereby the charged particle population acquires gyro phase coherence. Gyro phase coherence refers to the tendency for the whole charged particle population to have synchronized orbits, in this case radial synchrony. The result of radial synchrony is that the density of the beam fluctuates with each cycle. This is not the case in the standard cyclotron operation, nor the linear accelerator. As the charged particles approach the axis the density goes up and as they leave the axis the density goes down also as they approach the radial periphery the density goes back up, but not nearly as much. The collisional energy goes up as the particle population approaches the axis, especially the center of mass collisional energy. So the interaction likelihood, which is strongly energy dependant, is strongly favored on axis. The degree of density growth depends upon the axial extent of the confinement geometry, the charged particle population number, the value of the canonical angular momentum and the gyro phase coherence.
Drawing
An alternate preferred embodiment of the present invention is presented in drawing
An alternate preferred embodiment of the present invention is presented in drawing
The enablements described in detail above are considered novel over the prior art of record and are considered critical to the operation of at least one aspect of the apparatus and its method of use and to the achievement of the above described objectives. The words used in this specification to describe the instant embodiments are to be understood not only in the sense of their commonly defined meanings, but to include by special definition in this specification: structure, material of acts beyond the scope of the commonly defined meanings. thus if an element can be understood in the context of this specification as including more than one meaning, then its use must be understood as being generic to all possible meanings supported by the specification and by the word or words describing the element.
The definitions of the words or drawing elements described herein are meant to include not only the combination of elements literally set forth, but all equivalent structure, material or acts of performing substantially the same function in substantially the same way to obtain substantially the same result. In this sense it is therefore contemplated that an equivalent substitution of two or more elements may be made for any one of the elements described and its various embodiments or that a single element may be substituted for two or more elements in a claim. Likewise any positioning of elements as literally set forth is to be recognized as being representative of an example to teach and that alternate positioning of elements performing substantially the same function obtaining to the same result are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements. Changes from the claimed subject matter as viewed by a person with ordinary skill in the art, now known or later devised, are expressly contemplated as being equivalents within the scope intended and its various embodiments. Therefore, obvious substitutions now or later known to one with ordinary skill in the art are defined to be within the scope of the defined elements. This disclosure is thus meant to be understood to include what is specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually equivalent, what can be obviously substituted, and what incorporates the essential ideas.
The scope of this description is to be interpreted only in conjunction with the appended claims and is made clear, here, that each named inventor believes that the claimed subject matter is what is intended to be patented.
Not applicable.
