The idea of colliding two particle beams to fully exploit the energy of accelerated particles was first proposed by Rolf Wideröe, who in 1943 applied for a patent on the collider concept and was awarded the patent in 1953. The first three colliders — AdA in Italy, CBX in the US, and VEP-1 in the then Soviet Union — came to operation about 50 years ago in the mid-1960s. A number of other colliders followed.Over the past decades, colliders defined the energy frontier in particle physics. Different types of colliers — proton–proton, proton–antiproton, electron–positron, electron–proton, electron-ion and ion-ion colliders — have played complementary roles in fully mapping out the constituents and forces in the Standard Model (SM). We are now at a point where all predicted SM constituents of matter and forces have been found, and all the latest ones were found at colliders. Colliders also play a critical role in advancing beam physics, accelerator research and technology development. It is timely that RAST Volume 7 is dedicated to Colliders.

Contents:High Energy Colliding Beams: What Is Their Future? (B Richter)Proton–Proton and Proton–Antiproton Colliders (W Scandale)Electron–Positron Circular Colliders (K Oide)Ion Colliders (W Fischer and J M Jowett) Electron–Proton and Electron–Ion Colliders (I Ben-Zvi and V Ptitsyn) Linear Colliders (A Yamamoto and K Yokoya)Muon Colliders (R B Palmer) The Photon Collider (J Gronberg)Collider Beam Physics (F Zimmermann)Collision Technologies for Circular Colliders (E Levichev)Andy Sessler: The Full Life of an Accelerator Physicist (K-J Kim, R J Budnitz and H Winick)Readership: Physicists and engineers in accelerator science and industry.