Ionic
engine (ion thruster, which accelerates the positive ions through a
potential difference) is about 10 times more effective than classic
system based on combustion. We can still improve the efficiency of
10-50 times if one uses positive ions accelerated in a cyclotron
mounted on the ship; the efficiency can easily grow for 1000 times if
the positive ions will be accelerated in a high energy synchrotron,
synchrocyclotron or isochronous cyclotron (1-100 GeV). Future (ionic)
engine will have mandatory a circular particle accelerator (high or
very high energy). Sure that the difficulties will arise from design,
but they need to be resolved step by step. We can thus increase the
speed and autonomy of the ship using a less quantity of fuel. One can use synchrotron radiation (synchrotron light, high intensity beams), like high intensity (X-ray or Gamma ray) radiation, as well. In this case will be a beam engine (not an ionic engine).
A linear particle accelerator
(also called a LINAC) is an electrical device for the acceleration of
subatomic particles. This sort of particle accelerator has many
applications. It used recently as to an injector into a higher energy synchrotron at a dedicated experimental particle physics
laboratory. In this, the big classic synchrotron is reduced to a ring
surface (magnetic core). The design of a LINAC depends on the type of
particle that is being accelerated: electron, proton or ion.
It
proposes using a powerful LINAC at the exit of synchrotron (especially
when one accelerates electrons) to not lose energy by photons premature
emission.
One can use a LINAC in the entry in the Synchrotron and one at out.
To use a small entrance LINAC, between him and synchrotron, one put an additional speed circuit in a stadium form.
The end LINAC can be reduced if one put more end LINACs.
Synchrotrons are now mostly used for producing monochromatic high intensity X-ray beams; here, the synchrotron is the circular track, off which the beamlines branch.
Modern industrial-scale synchrotrons can be very large (here, Soleil near Paris)
FermiLab Tevatronis a 1 TeV collliding accelerator
(Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, USA). It accelerates protons
and antiprotons to slightly less than 1 TeV of kinetic energy and
collindes them together.
Tokamak
