Desktop laser accelerators send LHC to history dump

    The scientific community has been actively fostering passion around a gigantic scientific project called the Large Hadron Collider, which cost us $ 9 billion. Moreover, nuclear physicists have already begun preparations for the construction of a new International Linear Accelerator , even larger and much more expensive. Only for some reason no one says that the same tasks can be performed in another way.

    The idea of ​​irradiating plasma with powerful lasers was born back in 1979. Theorists predicted that plasma ions could be split in such a way that light electrons would bounce in different directions, creating a weak electromagnetic field along the laser beam. Moreover, if the laser is turned off, then the electrons tend back to their places, creating a similar charge of the opposite direction. Thus, using lasers, it is possible to create a wave-like structure in space from electro-magnetic fields.

    It is at these "waves" that it is supposed to accelerate protons in a laser electron accelerator , and it is possible to achieve huge acceleration energies at a distance of a few centimeters and to "catch" particles directly on the CCD sensor. An experimental physicist can get proton collisions right on his desktop.

    To see the desired effects (miniature black holes, etc.), you need to disperse the particles to an energy of 250 GeV and collide with each other. Previously, the creators of laser accelerators did not manage to exceed the bar even at 1 GeV, but a real breakthrough has recently happened: at a laser accelerator in California, they managed to disperse particles to 85 GeV (although they cheated a little there, but nonetheless)! It remains to learn how to install several laser accelerators in a chain one after another - and then you can achieve the desired energies. It is estimated that such a design will be able to make by 2025.

    It’s not necessary to drive protons through a 27-kilometer European tunnel. The laser accelerator will be relatively compact (at least the size of the laser guns and related equipment does not exceed hundreds of meters).

    via New Scientist

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