For centuries, great thinkers of the Greco-Roman, Islamic, Medieval and even early worlds of enlightenment have explored the capabilities of alchemy-the process of transforming basic metals (ie lead) into “precious” metals such as gold. Intellectual heavy weights such as Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle are frantically looking for recipes about the philosophical stone, a legendary substance with the power to transmute metals.
Of course, nothing appeared from these studies (except the foundations of modern chemistry), but it turns out that all the pain, Newton and the countless other intellectuals who pursued this alchemical dream, was a 17-kilometer particle accelerator capable of throwing atoms into another 99,99993 percent of light.
You know, the usual.
In a document published in Physical examination c From the team of a large experiment with ion counterparts (Alice) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), scientists describe in detail how they technically They practiced a little alchemy – though not quite like the luminaries of the past, they may have imagined. The Grand Adrone Collision (LHC) is designed to break the particles together but the machine can also Do what is known as “almost missed collisions”. Almost exactly what sounds, these close omissions are actually more common in the universe than the collisions with the main particles, and the electric fields around these nuclei can form proton-prothon or proton-core interactions as they pass.
In the experiment, scientists have created a collision with almost leakage with lead nuclei, which has a strong electromagnetic force due to its 82 protons. While lead nuclei travel at the speed of light, its magnetic field lines are “cut into thin pancake,” according to Cern. This can lead to a short pulse of photons, which often triggers “electromagnetic dissociation”. This process excites the nucleus, which can lead to the discard of neutrons and protons.
Using a zero -grade (ZDC) calorimeter to count the interactions obtained, Alice gathered how often lead atoms throw a proton (thalium), two protons (mercury) and finally three protons, which, of course, is gold. Although the Talium and mercury are more frequent by -products of this “electromagnetic dissociation”, it performs 2 of the Alice analysis that lasted from 2015 to 2018, it has shown that LHC has created 86 billion gold nuclei.
Sounds like a lot, right? Well, not really – it comes out about 29 trillion per gram. These gold nuclei are also Incredibly Short -lived, durable only for about the microsecond, before breaking into something or divided into other elements.
“It is impressive to see that our detectors can cope with the head of collisions producing thousands of particles, while being sensitive to clashes that produce only a few particles at a time, allowing the study of electromagnetic” nuclear transmutations, “said Alice’s speech Marko Van Leuven.
According to Cern, the subsequent circulations 3 produced a double amount of gold, but trillions less than necessary to make only one piece of gold jewelry – probably not what the ancient alchemists meant. However, Alice is not interested in finding some mythical transmutation stone.
Instead, this collaboration examines physics that is the result of collisions with heavy ions that create a gluon-ruddy plasma similar to what probably penetrates the universe only a million seconds after the big explosion. Tracking even these traces of the 21st century alchemy can be a great grace for future experiments and cases.
“The results also test and improve theoretical models of electromagnetic dissociation, which beyond their interest in internal physics are used to understand and predict beam losses, which are the main border for the presentation of LHC and future collectors,” said Alice John Zhouette in a statement from the contract.
CERN has completed a study on the LHC heir, which has been currently declared a future circular clash (FCC) in the past month. Having encountered high-energy clashes until 2070, FCC will produce science, as it seems, alchemy-ways beyond the wildest imagination of those famous fathers of modern science.
You may like and