Now, for the first time, researchers have demonstrated and made confirmation of the mechanism whereby the particle acceleration takes place – by replicating the process in a laboratory. Just as experts had thought, powerful electromagnetic waves referred to as Alfvén waves accelerate electrons along the magnetic field lines. Physicist Troy Carter of UCLA said this challenging experiment needed a measurement of the very little population of electrons propelling down the LAPD chamber at almost the same speed as the Alfvén waves, numbering not more than one in a thousand of the electrons in the plasma.