Accelerators load some new ammo: Crystals

Particle-accelerator specialists are forever trying to squeeze speeding particles into denser beams. That means more particle collisions within the accelerators, yielding more data and quickening the pace of discovery.

The girth of an ion beam (top) shrinks as the beam crystallizes (bottom). Schätz et al./Nature

But corralling the particles into narrow streams presents a challenge because the particles, which typically are all either positively or negatively charged, repel each other.