Os principais aceleradores de partículas: um relato histórico da busca por altas energias

Abstract

Much is said in particle studies. This also refers to particle accelerators, which are instruments used in the research of these studies. Despite this, it is possible that many people still do not know the existence of these instruments or, if they know, few know how the process of development of these instruments has developed over the years. For more, it is not comprehensive the amount of books that mention the subject in Portuguese. From that, this work tries to remedy this gap a bit, bringing a general review of the functioning of the main particle accelerators, without dwelling on the mathematical details. This work is intended to report the history of some major particle accelerators, providing to the reader an overview of the evolution of these machines in terms of technology and energy achieved. For that, a bibliographic revision was made, in books and articles that deal with the subject, and in official websites of some laboratories. It was possible to perceive that the search for high energies, generated by the competition between large laboratories, brought impacts with the creation and use of these machines in the development of science, technology and society as a whole, directly or indirectly.