HERA particle accelerator underway

1991/01/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

In Hamburg, Germany, the construction of the gigantic HERA particle accelerator (“Hadron Electron Ring Anlage”) was started in May 1984.

This project, carried out in collaboration by different states, has cost one billion frames (about 64,000 million pesetas). It ^is about recording subatomic particles measuring 10-16 millimeters (that is, a billion times less than hydrogen atoms), basic constituents of unknown matter.

In the Bahrenfeld district of Hamburg to reach the church you have to travel 25 meters underground and there is a tunnel of 6.3 kilometers in length describing the circumference. In their facilities, two different particles collide with each other accelerating to the speed of light. Protons and electrons are introduced into the hera by accelerating previously to a level, where they accelerate again until they reach an energy of 820 GeV (gigaelectronvolt) and 30 GeV respectively.

The proton (or nucleus of the hydrogen atom) is 1,800 times heavier than the electron and consists of three quarkes.

HRA trials aim to control chromoquantum dynamics (or mathematical model theory that indicates the cohesion of quarks in protons and neutrons). It is also intended to clarify whether quark and leptoi (electrons, muons, latons and their neutrinos) are formed by smaller particles. If these particles existed, the theory that relates six leptons and six quarks would be checked.

Protons barely radiate energy, but their mass is 1,800 times greater than that of electrons, so much larger magnets are needed to deviate. For this purpose, the magnets of niobium and titanium superconductors have been placed on the hera, capable of withstanding an intensity of 5,000 amps. Superconductivity is obtained at temperatures of -269°C or 4.2 K.