Through these new laws, the two fields can merge and become the “E” in E=mc². These fields skip the classical “amplify” etiquette that applies at low energies and instead follow the rules outlined by quantum electrodynamics. When two protons graze each other, their squished electromagnetic fields intersect. The energy of the LHC combined with the length contraction boosts the strength of the protons’ electromagnetic fields by a factor of 7500. The two incoming protons see each other as compressed pancakes accompanied by an equally squeezed electromagnetic field (protons are charged, and all charged particles have an electromagnetic field). Their normally rounded forms squish along the direction of motion as special relativity supersedes the classical laws of motion for processes taking place at the LHC. Inside CERN’s accelerator complex, protons are accelerated close to the speed of light. “We only see these two phenomena recently observed by ATLAS when we put together Maxwell’s equations with special relativity and quantum mechanics in the so-called theory of quantum electrodynamics.” Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “If you go back and look at Maxwell’s equations for classical electromagnetism, you’ll see that two colliding waves sum up to a bigger wave,” says Simone Pagan Griso, a researcher at the U.S. Instead, you’ll see the two beams combine to form an even brighter beam of light. If you try to replicate this photon-colliding experiment at home by crossing the beams of two laser pointers, you won’t be able to create new, massive particles. Simone Pagan Griso, a Berkeley Lab physicist and Divisional Fellow who coordinated the efforts of the Berkeley Lab team, said his team found about 174 particle interactions that are consistent with the creation of pairs of heavy force-carrying particles called W bosons from the collision of two photons. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) played a key role in an analysis of data from the world’s largest particle collider that found proof of rare, high-energy particle interactions in which matter was produced from light. It also confirms that at high enough energies, forces that seem separate in our everyday lives – electromagnetism and the weak force – are united.īerkeley Team Plays Key Role in Analysis of Particle Interactions That Produce Matter From Light The research doesn’t just illustrate the central concept governing processes inside the LHC: that energy and matter are two sides of the same coin. This year, scientists have taken that research a step further and discovered photons merging and transforming into something even more interesting: W bosons, particles that carry the weak force, which governs nuclear decay. Last year, the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s LHC observed two photons, particles of light, ricocheting off one another and producing two new photons. But on rare occasions, it can skip the first step and collide pure energy – in the form of electromagnetic waves. ![]() ![]() The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) plays with Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc², to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter. Note: This article was originally published by Symmetry magazine. The ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
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