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The entire Universe is made
up of particles.
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3. DETECTING PARTICLES
T5: How a detector works
This touch ball shows how particles are detected
and what measurements are needed for finding
new particles like the elusive Higgs boson.
Research
area
Universe of Particles
Every half hour, a 6 minute immersive audio-
visual experience tells the story of our universe
- and the mysteries that physicists want to solve
with the LHC.
Spark chambers
Cosmic rays from outer space impinge on our
atmosphere and create new particles whose
tracks are made visible in these detectors.
Spark
chambers
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LHC
LHC table
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Mysterious worlds
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T5 T6
Detecting particl
M5 M3
M4 In their o
Uni
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les T7
Science
T8 without
borders
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own words
4. SCIENCE WITHOUT BORDERS
T7: The seeds of technology
Basic research has always been the seed of
new technologies. This touch ball shows the
basic research leading to modern technologies
that are used in our daily life, in computing,
communication, electronics, power generation
and medicine.
Glossary believed to have been created in
equal amounts at the time of the
Big Bang.
Accelerator : A machine in which
beams of charged particles are
Beam : The particles in an
accelerated to high energies.
accelerator are grouped together
Electric fields are used to
in a beam. Beams contain billions
accelerate the particles. These
of particles and are divided into
fields oscillate at radio-frequency
discrete portions called bunches.
(RF) and are produced in RF-
Each bunch is typically several
cavities. Magnetic fields are used
centimetres long and just a few
to steer and to focus the particles.
millimetre wide.
Antimatter : Every kind of matter
Calorimeter : An instrument
particle has a corresponding
for measuring the amount of
antiparticle. Charged antiparticles
energy carried by a particle. An
have the opposite electric charge
electromagnetic calorimeter
to their matter counterparts.
measures the energy of electrons
Although antiparticles are
and photons. A hadron calorimeter
extremely rare in the Universe
determines the energy of hadrons
today, matter and antimatter are
(protons, neutrons, pions).
an energy of 7 000 000 000 000
Collider : A collider is a special eV (7 TeV). However, this is only
type of circular accelerator where the energy of motion of a flying
beams travelling in opposite mosquito.
directions are accelerated and
made to interact at designated Forces : There are four
collision points. fundamental forces in nature.
Gravity is the most familiar
Cosmic ray : A high-energy to us, but it is the weakest.
particle that strikes the Earth’s Electromagnetism is the force
atmosphere from space, responsible for thunderstorms
producing many secondary and carrying electricity into our
particles that can be made visible homes. The two other forces,
by using detectors such as a weak and strong, are
spark chamber. confined to the atomic nucleus.
The strong force binds the nucleus
Dark matter : Only 4% of the together, whereas the weak force
matter in the Universe is visible. causes some nuclei to break
The rest is known as dark matter up. The weak force is important in
(26%) and dark energy (70%). the energy generating processes
Finding out what dark matter of stars, including the Sun.
consists of is a major question for
modern science. Grid (also: Worldwide LHC
Computing Grid, WLCG). An
Detector : A device used to infrastructure for computing and
measure the momentum and data-storage for the entire high-
the energy of particles. Some energy physics community using
detectors measure the tracks the LHC. It presently involves
left behind by particles, others more than 90 institutions in over
measure their energy. In the large 30 countries worldwide, and
detectors at the LHC each layer unites the computing power of
has a very specific task. more than 100,000 state-of-the-
art PCs.
Dipole : A magnet with two poles,
like the north and south poles of Hadron : A subatomic particle that
a horseshoe magnet. Dipoles are contains quarks and that is held
used in particle accelerators to together by the strong force, for
keep particles moving in a circular example protons and neutrons.
orbit. In the LHC there are 1232
dipoles, each 15 m long. Higgs boson : A particle predicted
by theory for explaining how
Electronvolt (eV) : A unit of particles acquire their mass.
energy used in particle physics.
One eV is the energy of a particle Kelvin : A unit of temperature,
with elementary charge that has beginning at absolute zero (0 K =
been accelerated in an electric -273.15°C). One Kelvin is equal to
potential of 1 V. The mass of a one degree Celsius.
particle is also expressed in eV
by using the relation E = mc2. For LHC : The Large Hadron Collider,
example, the mass of the proton CERN’s biggest accelerator (27
is about 938 000 000 eV (938 MeV). km circumference), accelerating
The LHC accelerates protons to protons to an energy of 7 TeV.
LHC Experiments : The four large PS : The Proton Synchrotron, the
experiments studying collisions at oldest accelerator at CERN (built
the LHC are called ALICE, ATLAS, in 1959) and backbone of CERN’s
CMS, and LHCb. There are also accelerator complex.
three smaller experiments called
LHCf, Moedal, and TOTEM. Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) :
A new state of matter in which
Muon : A particle similar to the protons and neutrons break up
electron, but some 200 times into their constituent parts, a
more massive. state that should have existed just
after the Big Bang.
Neutrino : A very light and neutral
particle that hardly interacts at Synchrotron : An accelerator in
all. Neutrinos are very common which the magnetic field bending
and could hold the answers to the orbits of the particles
many questions in physics. increases with the energy of the
particles. This makes the particle
Quark : A particle that carries move on the same circular path.
a ‘strong’ charge. There are
six types of quarks (up, down, SPS : The Super Proton
charm, strange, top, bottom). Synchrotron. A 7 km diameter
A combination of the lightest accelerator that provides beams
two types (up, down) constitute for experiments at CERN, as well
protons (uud) and neutrons (udd). as preparing beams for the LHC.