CERN Accelerator
Written by John Carl Villanueva
Early progress: replacement parts were inspected at CERN over the weekend (CERN)
The plan to build CERN accelerator machines was conceptualized as early as 1952, when the provisional CERN council agreed to construct two particle accelerators for the purpose of probing the nucleus. Since then, a build-up of larger and more powerful machines came into play.
Because accelerators don't become obsolete so easily, some of the machines being used up to this day have already been operating for decades. For example, the Proton Synchrotron was already operational since 1959. Half a century after, scientists have still found use for it. The PS boosts particles and feeds them to the Super Proton Synchrotron. In turn, the SPS further boosts the particles and feeds them to the LHC.
Thus, once the protons reach the LHC, they would have already been accelerated to very high speeds and would have gained very high energies.
The LHC is the largest, most powerful CERN accelerator. Strictly speaking, it is a collider; not just a mere accelerator. Accelerators supposedly accelerate particles and allow them to strike stationary particles. Colliders, on the other hand, accelerate two particles, drive them to opposite directions, and then let them collide head on.
With this set up, the LHC can achieve energies in the TeV range.
Aside from those mentioned, there are still other CERN accelerator machines.
There's the CLIC or Compact LInear Collider. Using CLIC, scientists intend to accelerate electrons and their anti-particles, antiprotons, and bring them to a head-on collision involving several TeV. The energies involved here are about the same as those in the LHC. The main difference lies in the type of particles smashed together.
Another is the n_TOF or neutron Time-Of-Flight facility. Here, scientists produce and study beams of neutrons to shed light on, for example, stellar evolution.
Equally important as any CERN accelerator are the detectors. These are devices used to record data in order to acquire information such as a particle's mass, speed, and electric charge.
Used together, accelerators and detectors have been able to provide scientists valuable information regarding the smallest structures in the Universe. What makes it more exciting nowadays is the notion that, by understanding the very small, scientists can have a better idea as to how the Universe came into being.
You can read more about the CERN accelerator machines here in Universe Today. Here are the links:
Read more about the CERN accelerator complex in its official website:
Here are two episodes at Astronomy Cast that you might want to check out as well:
Filed under: Astronomy
Tags: CERN, CERN accelerator, large hadron collider, LHC
