xxvi unifying physics of accelerators, lasers and plasma
brainstorming. It is called TRIZ and has already been identified by industry as a means towards more rapid technological
progress. We discuss here how it may be used to cut the Gordian Knot 1 of rising costs and complexity, which threaten to
impede the development of more powerful instruments for
both pure and applied research.
One does not have to look far to find a candidate for
a symbiotic technique to pair with today’s accelerators. A
laser beam penetrating a plasma generates accelerating fields
many orders of magnitude greater than today’s accelerators.
This book for the first time puts these two techniques side by
side so that we may identify commonalities of solution and
stimulate today’s students of accelerator and laser/plasma
physics to work together and use TRIZ to solve the problem.
The book’s author heads the John Adams Institute, whose
participating universities include postgraduate students in
both the laser and accelerator fields. We are well placed to
kindle the fire of invention amongst them, and we urge those
responsible for young and inventive minds elsewhere to join
this mission. Our students are already applying our ideas to
the Future Circular Collider project of CERN.
Edmund Wilson — Geneva, March 7, 2015
1 The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with
Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for disentangling an intractable problem.
brainstorming. It is called TRIZ and has already been identified by industry as a means towards more rapid technological
progress. We discuss here how it may be used to cut the Gordian Knot 1 of rising costs and complexity, which threaten to
impede the development of more powerful instruments for
both pure and applied research.
One does not have to look far to find a candidate for
a symbiotic technique to pair with today’s accelerators. A
laser beam penetrating a plasma generates accelerating fields
many orders of magnitude greater than today’s accelerators.
This book for the first time puts these two techniques side by
side so that we may identify commonalities of solution and
stimulate today’s students of accelerator and laser/plasma
physics to work together and use TRIZ to solve the problem.
The book’s author heads the John Adams Institute, whose
participating universities include postgraduate students in
both the laser and accelerator fields. We are well placed to
kindle the fire of invention amongst them, and we urge those
responsible for young and inventive minds elsewhere to join
this mission. Our students are already applying our ideas to
the Future Circular Collider project of CERN.
Edmund Wilson — Geneva, March 7, 2015
1 The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with
Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for disentangling an intractable problem.