Accelerated muons bring next-gen particle colliders closer to reality
Muon colliders could slam the subatomic particles together in hopes of unlocking physics secrets. Giving muons a speed boost is a crucial step.
Scientists corralled the subatomic particles right into a beam earlier than accelerating them
A simulation shows tracks of particles produced in a muon collider, a proposed new kind of particle smasher that scientists hope may perchance reveal new physics secrets.
D. Lucchesi et al, CERN
A simulation shows tracks of particles produced in a muon collider, a proposed new kind of particle smasher that scientists hope may perchance reveal new physics secrets.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/eleven/110724_ev_muon-acceleration_feat.jpg?fit=680p.c.2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/eleven/110724_ev_muon-acceleration_feat.jpg?fit=800p.c.2C450&ssl=1" tabindex="zero" role="button">
Muons are getting a move on.
In a step toward new types of particle physics experiments, scientists cooled and then accelerated a beam of muons. The subatomic particles, heavy cousins of electrons, can be accelerated and slammed together at future particle colliders in hopes of unlocking physics secrets. But first, scientists should determine a approach to supply muons a speed boost.
Counterintuitively, that means first slowing muons down. Muons in particle beams in the starting place go every which way. To make a beam suitable for experiments, the particles should be first slowed and then reaccelerated, all in the identical direction. This slowing, or cooling, became first demonstrated in 2020 (SN: 2/5/20).
Now, scientists have now not most effective cooled muons but also accelerated them in an experiment on the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, or J-PARC, in Tokai. The muons reached a speed of about four percent the rate of light, or roughly 12,000 kilometers per second, researchers report October 15 at arXiv.org.
The scientists first sent the muons into an aerogel, a lightweight subject matter that slowed the muons and created muonium, an atomlike combination of a positively charged muon and a negatively charged electron. Next, a laser stripped away the electrons, leaving on the back of cooled muons that electromagnetic fields then accelerated.
Muon colliders may perchance generate higher energy collisions than machines that smash protons, that are themselves made from smaller particles often often known as quarks. Each and every proton’s energy is divvied up among its quarks, which implies most effective a component to the energy goes into the collision. Muons have no smaller bits inside. And that they’re preferable to electrons, which lose energy as they circle an accelerator. Muons aren’t as tormented by that issue by reason of their larger mass.
In a similar fashion to colliders, muon beams are useful for experiments comparable to measuring the particles’ magnetic properties, a subject that has confounded physicists (SN: eight/10/23).
More Stories from Science News on Particle Physics
What's Your Reaction?
