The whole world knows that in 1957 the USSR launched the world's first artificial Earth satellite. However, few people know that in the same year the Soviet Union began testing the synchrophasotron, which is the progenitor of the modern Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. The article will discuss what a synchrophasotron is and how it works.
Synchrophasotron in simple words
Answering the question of what a synchrophasotron is, it should be said that this is a high-tech and high-tech device, which was intended for the study of microcosmos. In particular, the idea of the synchrophasotron was as follows: it was necessary, using powerful magnetic fields created by electromagnets, to accelerate a beam of elementary particles (protons) to high speeds, and then direct this beam to a target at rest. From such a collision, the protons will have to "break" into pieces. Not far from the target is a special detector - a bubble chamber. This detector allows you to explore the nature and properties of the tracks that leave parts of the proton.
Why was it necessary to build the synchrophasotron of the USSR? In this scientific experiment, which was held under the category of "top secret", Soviet scientists tried to find a new source of cheaper and more efficient energy than enriched uranium. The purely scientific goals of a deeper study of the nature of nuclear interactions and the world of subatomic particles were also pursued.
The principle of operation of the synchrophasotron
The above description of the tasks facing the synchrophasotron may not seem to many to be too difficult for their implementation in practice, but this is not so. Despite the simplicity of the question, what is a synchrophasotron in order to accelerate protons to the necessary enormous speeds, electrical voltages of hundreds of billion volts are needed. Such stresses cannot be created even at present. Therefore, it was decided to distribute in time the energy pumped into the protons.
The principle of operation of the synchrophasotron was as follows: the proton beam begins to move along the ring-shaped tunnel, in some place of this tunnel there are capacitors that create a voltage surge at the moment when the proton beam flies through them. Thus, a slight acceleration of protons occurs at each turn. After the particle beam makes several million revolutions along the synchrophasotron tunnel, the protons will reach the desired speeds and will be directed to the target.
It is worth noting that the electromagnets used during acceleration of protons played a guiding role, that is, they determined the path of the beam, but did not participate in its acceleration.
Problems that scientists encountered when conducting experiments
In order to better understand what a synchrophasotron is and why its creation is a very complex and high-tech process, one should consider the problems that arise in the process of its operation.
Firstly, the greater the speed of the proton beam, the more mass they begin to possess according to Einstein's famous law. At speeds close to light, the mass of particles becomes so large that to keep them on the desired path, it is necessary to have powerful electromagnets. The larger the size of the synchrophasotron, the larger magnets can be placed.
Secondly, the creation of the synchrophasotron was also complicated by energy losses by the proton beam during their circular acceleration, and the higher the beam velocity, the more significant these losses become. It turns out that in order to accelerate the beam to the necessary gigantic speeds, it is necessary to have huge power.
What results were obtained?
Undoubtedly, experiments at the Soviet synchrophasotron made a huge contribution to the development of modern fields of technology. So, thanks to these experiments, scientists of the USSR were able to improve the processing of used uranium-238 and obtained some interesting data by colliding accelerated ions of different atoms with a target.
The results of experiments at the synchrophasotron are still used in the construction of nuclear power plants, space rockets and robotics. The achievements of Soviet scientific thought were used in the construction of the most powerful synchrophasotron of our time, which is the Large Hadron Collider. The Soviet accelerator itself serves the science of the Russian Federation, being at the Institute of the Lebedev Physical Institute (Moscow), where it is used as an ion accelerator.