| Definition: | an accelerator in which charged particles are accelerated along a straight path either by means of a travelling electromagnetic field or through a series of small gaps between electrodes that are so connected to an alternating voltage supply of high frequency that, as the particles arrive at successive gaps, the field always accelerates them.
NOTE 1 – Many electron accelerators employ travelling waves.
NOTE 2 – Heavy particle accelerators are usually of the second type.
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