This geocache series was placed on occasion of the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson. We want to show you the beautiful countryside around the CERN Meyrin site and tell the story of this discovery with this Geocache series containing of five traditionals.
Each Geocache is dedicated to a particular aspect of the 50-year long scientific journey. The following Caches belong to this series:
The topic of this geocache is:
What is a particle accelerator?
At CERN we host the largest particle accelerator in the world. But what is a particle accelerator?
- Particle accelerators accelerate electrically charged particles with the help of electric fields.
- In a linear accelerator, alternating electric fields are used to accelerate particles along a straight path.
- In a circular accelerator, electric fields increase the energy of particles, and magnetic fields are used to steer them along a circular path.
- The maximum energy particles can reach in a circular accelerator is limited by the strength of the magnetic fields that steer the particles around the circle, and by the circumference of the circular accelerator.
- At CERN, we use a chain of a linear and several circular accelerators in order to bring particles to the highest energies ever reached by humans (though particles from outer space can reach higher energies, but these cannot be controlled)
- When high-energetic particles collide, their energies can transform, and new particles are created.