A few years ago they predicted that as soon as the hadron collider was put into action, the end of the world would come. This huge proton and ion accelerator, built at the Swiss CERN, is rightfully recognized as the largest experimental facility in the world. It was built by tens of thousands of scientists from many countries of the world. It can truly be called an international institution. However, it all started at a completely different level, first of all, in order for the proton speed to be determined in the accelerator. It is about the history of creation and the stages of development of such accelerators that will be described below.
History of becoming
After the presence of alpha particles was discovered and atomic nuclei began to be studied directly, people began to try to conduct experiments on them. At first, there wasn’t even talking about any proton accelerators, since the level of technology was relatively low. The true era of accelerator technology began only in the 30s of the last century, when scientists began to purposefully develop particle acceleration schemes. Two scientists from Great Britain were the first in 1932 to construct a special constant voltage generator, which allowed the rest to begin the era of nuclear physics, which became possible to put into practice.
The appearance of the cyclotron
The cyclotron, which was the name of the first proton accelerator, came up with the idea of the scientist Ernest Lawrence in 1929, but he could only construct it in 1931. Surprisingly, the first sample was quite small, only about a dozen centimeters in diameter, and therefore could only disperse protons a little. The whole concept of his accelerator was to use not an electric, but a magnetic field. The proton accelerator in this state was not aimed at directly accelerating positively charged particles, but at curving their trajectory to such a state that they flew around the circle in a closed state.
This is what made it possible to create a cyclotron, consisting of two hollow half disks, inside which protons rotated. All other cyclotrons were built on this theory, however, in order to obtain much greater power, they became increasingly cumbersome. By the 40s, the standard size of such a proton accelerator began to equal buildings.
It was for the invention of the cyclotron in 1939 that Lawrence was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.
Synchrophasotrons
However, as scientists tried to make the proton accelerator more powerful, problems began. Often they were purely technical, since the requirements for the formed medium were incredibly high, but in part they were also in the fact that the particles simply did not accelerate, as was required from them. A new breakthrough in 1944 was made by Vladimir Veksler, who came up with the principle of autophasing. Surprisingly, the American scientist Edwin Macmillan did the same a year later. They suggested adjusting the electric field so that it affects the particles themselves, adjusting them if necessary or, conversely, slowing them down. This made it possible to preserve the particle motion in the form of a single bunch, rather than a vague mass. Such accelerators are called synchrophasotron.
Collider
In order for the accelerator to accelerate protons to kinetic energy, even more powerful structures were required. So colliders appeared that worked by using two particle beams that would spin in opposite directions. And since they were placed towards each other, particles would collide. The idea was first born to the physicist Rolf Wiederö in 1943, but it was only possible to develop it in the 60s, when new technologies appeared that could carry out this process. This made it possible to increase the number of new particles that would appear as a result of collision.
All developments over the following years directly led to the construction of a huge structure - the Large Hadron Collider in 2008, which in its structure represents a ring 27 kilometers long. It is believed that precisely the experiments conducted in it will help to understand how our world was formed, and its deep structure.
Launch of the Large Hadron Collider
The first attempt to put this collider into operation was made in September 2008. September 10 is considered the day of its official launch. However, after a series of successful tests, an accident occurred - after 9 days it was out of order, and therefore it was forced to close for repair.
New tests began only in 2009, however, until 2014, the construction worked on extremely low energy to prevent new breakdowns. It was at this time that the Higgs boson was discovered, which caused a surge in the scientific community.
At the moment, almost all studies are conducted in the field of heavy ions and light nuclei, after which the LHC will again be closed for modernization until 2021. It is believed that he will be able to work until about 2034, after which, for further research, it will be necessary to create new accelerators.
Today's picture
At the moment, the structural limit of accelerators has reached its peak, so the only option is to create a linear proton accelerator, similar to those that are now used in medicine, but much more powerful. CERN tried to recreate a miniature version of the device, but there was no noticeable progress in this area. It is planned to directly connect this model of the linear collider to the LHC in order to provoke the density and intensity of protons, which will then be sent directly to the collider itself.
Conclusion
With the advent of nuclear physics, the era of the development of particle accelerators began. They survived numerous stages, each of which brought numerous discoveries. Now it is impossible to find a person who would never have heard of the Large Hadron Collider in his life. He is mentioned in books and films - predicting that he will help reveal all the secrets of the world or simply end it. It is not known for certain what all CERN experiments will lead to, however, using accelerators, scientists were able to answer many questions.