Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 634: Can't Wait to Start

As time went by, the new super-large particle collider finally completed the straightness test. Its head is composed of a comprehensive particle generator. The so-called comprehensive particle generator, as the name suggests, can produce any type of particles, well, particles that humans can make in the laboratory.

So, it's a comprehensive particle collider.

The most well-known particle colliders are hadron colliders, such as proton colliders, antiproton colliders, and proton-antiproton colliders. These colliders are mainly used to study the properties and interactions of elementary particles.

The next is a lepton collider, such as the electron-positron collider, which can also be used for lepton collision experiments. Heavy ion collisions, such as lead particle collision experiments, can also be performed by this collider.

Each ion collision experiment corresponds to a scientific research direction. For example, the heavy ion collision experiment is designed to simulate the extreme energy and temperature conditions in the early state of the universe and to study the physical behavior under such circumstances.

There are also neutron collisions. This type of particle collision mainly studies the spin and magnetic moment of neutrons, which is an important applied technology in nuclear physics research, especially in the fields of nuclear reactions and nuclear decay. Neutron-antineutron collisions study the interaction between neutrons and antineutrons, as well as their physical behavior under high energy and high density conditions. This type of research helps humans better understand the properties of nuclear matter and the evolution of the universe.

That is, the nuclear physics process at all stages of the universe.

Don't think that you don't need to study nuclear matter after you have mastered the ultimate reaction of nuclear fusion, heavy nuclear reactions. Nuclear reactions in the early universe and today's nuclear reactions may have different reaction conditions. Behind these phenomena are all manifestations of the laws of cosmic physics.

This new particle collider is currently the most important scientific tool for mankind. When it was first designed, of course, humans wanted to make it as multifunctional as possible. Otherwise, if there is one type of particle collision result data missing at the end of the experiment, there would be no place to cry.

This new particle collider has a name that doesn't sound like a name. Scientists call it an astronomical particle collider. The name is very down-to-earth, and people can roughly understand what it is at a glance. This naming method has continued since humans set foot on the starry sky. The previous English abbreviation naming method such as HLGR and SGHUOB has long been eliminated. After all, compared with the abbreviation naming method, the Chinese name is easier for people to understand its existence.

Today is the first day that the astronomical-grade particle collider is put into use. It will usher in its first collision experiment, the neutron collision experiment, which is an experimental project approved thousands of years ago.

The so-called particle collision, as the name implies, is the process of accelerating particles and then violently colliding them at the target. After the experiment begins, the astronomical particle collider will generate a charged particle beam from the particle generator at the head end, and then shoot it into the acceleration system in the middle. The particle collision experiment does not just launch a particle, but a beam of particles. The reason is that the particles are too small, resulting in a very small probability of particle collision. The collision probability can only be increased by increasing the number of particles.

The acceleration system of this astronomical-grade particle accelerator is the same as that of a general accelerator, consisting of a series of electric and magnetic field accelerations, which can accelerate charged particles to a high-energy state. This system is the largest component of the entire astronomical-grade particle accelerator, with a length of 6674 astronomical units, most of which are acceleration structures.

A part of the magnet system is also embedded in it, which is mainly used to focus and deflect the charged particles so that they can accurately hit the target. As for why charged particles are accelerated instead of directly accelerating neutrons, it is naturally because neutrons are neutral particles without charge and cannot be accelerated by electric fields.

Yes, neutrons are neutral particles, they are not charged, and the acceleration system of this particle accelerator is for charged particles, so it seems that it is impossible to conduct neutron collision experiments. After all, the principles of physics do not allow it, and electric fields cannot accelerate neutron beams.

But it doesn't stump scientists at all.

Because as early as the Earth era, humans have mastered the method of accelerating neutrons. It is true that neutrons are not charged, but they can be accelerated indirectly. The first is to use an accelerator to accelerate a proton beam, and then let the proton beam bombard the target material to produce high-energy neutrons, thereby causing the neutrons to collide.

However, scientists have calculated that the high-energy neutrons produced by this indirect method are simply not enough to reach the energy level required by the grand unified theory, so they have to find other ways.

The second method is indirect acceleration, which is to use accelerated electrons to bombard neutrons or photons to bombard neutrons to indirectly accelerate neutrons, turning them into high-energy neutrons and then colliding them. This method is the same as the first one, because of the indirect transmission, a lot of energy is lost, making the obtained high-energy neutrons unable to meet the collision energy level requirements.

The third method is the decay method, which is to use certain decays to produce high-speed neutrons. Obviously, this method cannot meet the experimental needs.

Therefore, the method adopted by this astronomical-grade particle collider is the method of using charged particles to accelerate neutrons, that is, first accelerating charged particles, such as deuterium nuclei, and after the particle flow reaches an extremely high speed, a certain specific electromagnetic field is used to separate the protons in the deuterium nuclei, thereby obtaining a high-energy neutron beam.

The separation device is set in the second half of the acceleration process. When the detector finds that the acceleration speed of the high-energy particle flow reaches the experimental requirements, the separation device will be activated, thus ensuring that the high-energy neutron beam meets the experimental requirements.

In order to accelerate the ion beam more efficiently, the acceleration system is partially in a vacuum environment. The separation system is connected to the second half of the acceleration system, and then the collision zone. The structure of the collision zone is very complex because it contains a lot of functional equipment, such as cloud chambers, target materials, primary particle detector systems, secondary particle detection systems, diversion probes, and other high-tech equipment are concentrated here.

If you look at this astronomical particle collider from outer space, you will see that it looks like a long corridor in the dark universe. During the preparation period, various indicator lights inside it kept flashing like fireflies, and its exterior was completely dark except for the two ends. Only when the lights of the passing engineering ships shone on it could its silvery body be seen.

It seems like a corridor leading to the netherworld, a passage leading to the other side of light, and a road of hope leading to the sky. Every beam of particle flow will be an act of accelerating the sprint with human hope, no matter the result is to enter the netherworld or the road to the sky.

(End of this chapter)