Space Multi-Point Particle Collider
Things on the Dog-Headed People Planet are all on track, but a project in space is only just beginning.
That is the Space Multi-Point Modular Particle Collider.
After more than 30 years of preparation, humanity has completed the blueprint verification and construction plan, and all kinds of materials and resources have been planned. After construction begins, there will be dedicated transportation channels to continuously provide all kinds of necessary materials for the construction of the collider.
Because the construction of the Particle Collider project is about to begin, Yue Yuan also came to the Physics Academy today. When he arrived, a group of outstanding physicists had already gathered there.
How to build a collider is naturally up to engineers from various industries, but these physicists have the knowledge of all the parameters of Particle Collider, what level it can achieve after completion, and what it can be used for research.
Therefore, Yue Yuan came here hoping to get a general understanding of the collider.
In the planning stages, the Space Multi-Point Particle Collider is shaped like a large ring with a circumference of approximately 12,000 kilometers.
To put 12,000 kilometers into perspective, the circumference of the moon is 10,916 kilometers. This means that once the collider that humanity plans to build is completed, it will be a ring slightly larger than the moon.
The reason for building it so large is that a small one would not be able to meet the needs of human scientific research.
As is well known, a Particle Collider is a device developed from Large Hadron Collider based on a high-energy synchrotron accelerator. Its main function is to accumulate and accelerate two beams of particles injected successively from a pre-accelerator, so that they collide with each other to produce a sufficiently high reaction capacity.
The energy required to break a single atom— Hydrogen Atom, for example—is only 13.6 electron volts. This shows that an energy level of approximately 10 to 100 electron volts is sufficient to disintegrate an atom. However, to achieve scientific research goals, simply breaking atoms is not enough; much greater energy is needed.
The energy required for the disintegration of Atomic Nucleus is between 10⁶ and 10⁷ electron volts, and humanity has long since mastered the ability to exceed this energy level.
The Tevatron, Texas Large Hadron Collider of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Texas, was developed in the 20th century and possessed the power to generate forces exceeding this energy. Its collision energy was 1 TeV, or one trillion electron volts.
However, a mere one trillion electron volts of energy is not enough, because this collision energy is barely enough to produce electroweak particles, which is the threshold for discovering the Electroweak Unification Theory.
Humanity cannot be satisfied with the past, so it must build a larger collider.
As early as Earth Era, humans built a collider with a circumference of 27 kilometers, namely the Large Hadron Collider European Nuclear Research Center. Its collision energy can reach 1.3 x 10^12 electron volts, or 13 trillion electron volts.
Such powerful energy far exceeds the conditions required to discover the Electroweak Unification Theory. This energy level is also the level at which Electromagnetic Force couples charge with the Weak Force to cause certain types of radioactive decay.
In the primordial universe, a certain symmetry was broken in Gravity, the Strong Force, and the Weak Electricity, which evolved into the Four Fundamental Forces of Gravity, the Strong Force, Electromagnetic Force, and the Weak Force. This is also the point at this level.
Human colliders have explored this level, but it is far from enough. According to the theory that Strong Force coupling of Quark produces protons and neutrons, Electromagnetic Force couples electric charge, and Weak Force causes certain types of radioactive decay, to explore the Grand Unified Theory, we need to have at least an energy level of 10 to the power of 24 electron volts.
This energy level is 10 to the power of 24 times higher than the collision energy produced by the most powerful Particle Collider in Earth Era. If designed according to the Large Hadron Collider at European Nuclear Research Center, a collider that could produce such energy would need to be one trillion kilometers long.
What does one trillion kilometers mean? Converted to Astronomical Unit, it is 6684.6 Astronomical Unit, which is 6684.6 times the calm distance between the Sun and the Earth. If we follow the previous design plan, we would have to build a collider with such a length to explore the Grand Unified Theory.
As for Theory of Everything, that falls under the category of Quantum Gravity or the Theory of Everything, and it would take building a collider a thousand light-years away to detect it.
The search for Theory of Everything involving Quantum Gravity and Theory of Everything is something that humanity can only dream about at this stage. However, we can strive for a grand unification. Even if we can't build such a collider, we can still build a pre-collider.
The Space Multi-Point Particle Collider, designed by humankind today, was proposed under these circumstances. Looking at it this way, a collider with a circumference of 10,000 kilometers doesn't seem so large anymore.
It is precisely with future upgrade needs in mind that this collider adopts a modular design, with each part, including the accelerator, collision point, magnet system, and detector, being modularized.
In the design, this Space Multi-Point Particle Collider is powered by Heavy Nuclear Fusion, and the cooling device uses a compressor to compress liquid helium to cool the device to a suitable temperature.
Because it is in space, the particle collision point of the collider does not need to be connected to the accelerator. After all, the space environment is even more vacuum than the vacuum inside the accelerator, allowing the particle stream to pass through the cosmic vacuum.
When a stream of particles passes through a circular accelerator, it is accelerated to an energy level of 10 to 100 trillion electron volts. By accelerating the particles multiple times in this circular manner, powerful energy can be generated when the particles collide.
Based on the length of this Space Multi-Point Particle Collider and the combined calculations of strong magnetic fields and Heavy Nuclear Fusion energy mastered by mankind, if this project is completed, then mankind will definitely have the ability to accelerate particles to 100 trillion electron volts, which is 10 to the power of 18 electron volts.
Although it's still many levels of "despair" away from the 10 to the power of 24 electron volts that offer a glimpse into the Grand Unified Theory, at least it's on its way.
Well, the reason why ion beams can be accelerated to such powerful energies is not only due to the super-strong magnetic field technology and heavy Fusion Reactor, but also to the structural design of the Space Multi-Point Particle Collider itself.
After all, this thing is different from the "two-dimensional plane" on the ground. In space, as long as the collision precision is sufficient, humans can make the kinetic energy of the accelerated particles cancel out the kinetic energy generated by particles of the same size in the opposite direction. As long as there are enough collision points, the energy of the collider will increase with the increase in the number of collision points.
With current human capabilities in mechanical technology, control of ultra-strong magnetic fields, and energy-related technologies, the energy level that a collider can achieve is limited to 10 to the power of 18, which is 5 to 6 energy levels higher than the most powerful collider in Earth Era.
That's all for now. Because instruments for observing particle properties need to be set up, humans can't make collision points in every direction.