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Not content with protons and atomic nuclei, physicists have taken a new type of particle to spin the world's most powerful particle accelerator
On 25 July, the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, accelerated. ionized lead atoms, each containing a single electron paired with a lead core. Each lead atom normally has 82 electrons, but the researchers removed all objects except one in the experiment, giving the particles an electric charge. Previously, the LHC had only accelerated the protons and nuclei of atoms, without any eye-catching electrons.
Scientists hope that the success of the test will mean that the LHC could one day be used as a gamma-ray plant. Gamma rays, a type of high energy light, could be produced by zapping beams of ionized atoms with laser light. This light would jostle the electrons of the atoms into higher energy states, and the accelerated atoms would emit gamma rays when the electrons would later return to lower energy states. Existing facilities produce gamma rays from electron beams, but the LHC could produce gamma rays at higher intensities.
More powerful gamma rays would be useful for a variety of scientific purposes, including the search for certain types of dark matter. mysterious particles that scientists believe to exist in the universe, but still need to detect ( SN: 11/12/16, p. 14 ). Gamma rays could also be used to produce beams of other particles, such as heavy particles resembling electrons, called muons, to be used in new types of experiments.
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