Question

the main purpose of a particle accelerator is to

Answer 1

accelerate particles?

Accelerators have many uses. They're used in high energy physics and nuclear physics to find new particles, test theories about fundamental forces and explore nuclei structure.

There's synchrotron light production that relies on the fact that charged particles radiate light when they're accelerated.

There are also medical uses for accelerators, such as electron therapy, proton therapy and generating x-rays with synchrotron light.

Cathode ray tubes (found in old TVs) are a form of particle accelerator