What is a Particle Beam?
A particle beam is a beam of accelerated particles, usually charged particles (ions). Real-life applications of a particle beam include particle accelerators (“atom smashers”), in plasma physics, cathode-ray tube televisions, computer displays, and in cancer therapies. After a brief flurry of research into particle beam weaponry in the 1980s, such investigations were mostly dropped, with lasers and other directed energy weapons getting the attention and research dollars nowadays. A natural example of a particle beam would be lightning, where electrons make a jump from negatively charged clouds to the neutral ground. Most types of particle beam consist of charged particles such as protons or electrons, because charged particles are easy to accelerate along using magnets. Most particle beams are created by running a stream of particles through a series of devices, each of which imparts a little nudge to the beam, until it is accelerated to a significant speed. In some particle accelerato
