A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams.. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.

In the early 20th century, cyclotrons were commonly referred to as atom smashers.  Despite the fact that modern colliders actually propel subatomic particles—atoms themselves now being relatively simple to disassemble without an accelerator—the term persists in popular usage when referring to particle accelerators in general.  

Everyday examples of particle accelerators are cathode ray tubes found in television sets and X-ray generators. These low-energy accelerators use a single pair of electrodes with a DC voltage of a few thousand volts between them. In an X-ray generator, the target itself is one of the electrodes. A low-energy particle accelerator called an ion implanter is used in the manufacture of integrated circuits.

There are also several types of high energy accelerator.  DC accelerator types capable of accelerating particles to speeds sufficient to cause nuclear reactions are Cockcroft-Walton generators or voltage multipliers, which convert AC to high voltage DC, or Van de Graaff generators that use static electricity carried by belts. The largest and most powerful particle accelerators, such as the RHIC, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and the Tevatron, are used for experimental particle physics. Particle accelerators can also produce proton beams, which can produce proton-rich medical or research isotopes as opposed to the neutron-rich ones made in fission reactors.

The inspiration for this colorway came from the older type of particle accelerator.  I took all the colors from the colorway “Atom” and smashed them all together into a single variegated stripe.