How does the Alice detector work?
ALICE studies the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a phase of matter called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) forms. ALICE uses a highly sensitive detector which takes measurements of hadrons, electrons, muons and photons produced in the collision of nuclei.
What happens when a particle collides with another particle?
When two beams collide, all that energy packed into such a small vacuum of space explodes and creates mass in the form of subatomic particles (think of Einstein’s famous equation: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared).
What happens in a proton proton collision?
In most proton collisions the quarks and gluons inside the two protons interact to form a wide array of low-energy, ordinary particles. The goal of colliding particles is to answer questions such as what is all matter made of, and what creates the interactions of matter, in the most fundamental level.
Did CERN create a black hole?
First of all, yes, it is true that the LHC might create microscopic black holes. But, for the record, it could not have created one on its first day. That’s because the physicists at CERN didn’t steer beams of protons into each other to create high-energy collisions.
What is Alice in CERN?
ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a detector dedicated to heavy-ion physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities, where a phase of matter called quark-gluon plasma forms.
What happens when a proton collides with another proton?
When a proton collides at high energy with another proton or atomic nucleus, the effect of the collision is a stream of secondary particles known as a jet. Some of these jets extend sideways, but there are some that keep to a direction of motion close to the primary one.
What direction do protons travel in the Large Hadron Collider?
At the Large Hadron Collider at CERN — the world’s most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed — protons are circulated in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions, where they’ll eventually be forced to collide. The way the accelerator works is as follows.
How does the PEP-II collider create electron-positron head on collisions?
The PEP-II collider at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center creates electron-positron head-on collisions. In the laboratory frame the combination of electron energy E – = 9 GeV and positron energy E + = 3.1 GeV is resonant for the production of a single Y particle.
Can two proton beams collide?
The ATLAS experiment at the LHC accelerator (CERN, Geneva) has been recording the collisions of two proton beams or a proton beam with a beam of lead nuclei traveling in opposite directions for years.