Superconducting Magnets Inside Hadron Collider

Particle accelerators help scientists to investigate the infinitely large by examining the infinitely small. What, exactly, goes on inside the collider? Bundles of electrons and positrons collide, and the results are "not just debris but particles that are born from the transformation of energy at the moment of collision." The great the energy available, the greater the mass of the new particles.

Detectors check out happens, at various depths. Resulting images are then analyzed by physicists and computers. However ... the faster the particles travel, en route to their collision point, the more they generate their own breaking system ("by imaging light").

To work within these various parameters, CERN created a new machine - the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) - which began its operations in 2008. This atom smasher, however, accelerates PROTONS, not electrons and positrons.

What happens in the LHC occurs with the help of superconducting magnets. An animation, explaining this process, begins at 3:00 in this video clip.

A circular tube contains the accelerating particles (colliding protons), and a powerful magnetic field develops around the circulating route. To see an animation of this magnetic field in operation, move the video forward to 4:45.

At 6:55 in the clip, look for a superconducting phenomenon: electrons gathering in pairs (in place of their natural tendency to repel each other). When this happens, electrons can flow freely - an amazing scientific event.