# How is a proton beam separated into bunches in a particle accelerator?

I was wondering how exactly is a proton beam separated into bunches, each at interval of $${25}\,$$ns after the previous?

• took me some time but I found it : buckets and bunches. lhc-closer.es/taking_a_closer_look_at_lhc/0.buckets_and_bunches . – anna v Apr 21 at 16:08
• Thank you for your answer. I found an article about the RF cavities in the accelerators at CERN, in which the following is said: "protons with slightly different energies arriving earlier or later will be accelerated or decelerated so that they stay close to the desired energy. In this way, the particle beam is sorted into packs of protons called "bunches"." These lines made me think that the timing is calculated with respect to the middle particles of a bunch and those afterwards are pushed back while the ones before are pushed forward. I didn't quite understand the article mentioned above. – Любомир Борисов Apr 22 at 5:19
• Here is the article - home.cern/science/engineering/… – Любомир Борисов Apr 22 at 5:38
• I am not an expert, and that is why I have not answered. The way I understand the link I gave is that the whole ring is in a resonance synchrony , so that particles completing the circle can get a boost to , after all the turns, acquire the necessary energy of 7 tev, (or whatever). So the kick in energy to the example particle is such that it is completely synchronized over the buckets. – anna v Apr 22 at 6:44
• The buckets are where the RF of the whole circuit have useful nodes, in the circle of the accelerator . So the example particle is the perfect solution to the electromagnetic boundary conditions.But as there are errors, the ones before the perfect particle and the ones after, bunch into a bunch, as it seems the system is self correcting. So it is all about resonances in an electromagnetic circuit. Instead of a continuous stream there are bunches and empty spaces, all controlled by the frequency of the RF, and the space dimensions of the LHC circle. – anna v Apr 22 at 6:47