Il più potente acceleratore di particelle del mondo, il Large Hadron Collider (LHC), fu messo in funzione dieci anni fa all’Organizzazione europea per la ricerca nucleare (CERN) di Ginevra. Era il 10 settembre del 2008, quando, per la prima volta, un fascio percorse l’intero tubo.
Si trova all'interno di un tunnel lungo 27 chilometri
La macchina fu costruita all'interno di un tunnel sotterraneo lungo 27 chilometri, al confine tra Svizzera e Francia. Come suggerisce il nome, la sua funzione è di far prendere velocità e massa alle componenti più minuscole della materia e di farle collidere, in modo da poter vedere cosa vi è all’interno delle particelle e trovarne di più piccole. Grazie all’acceleratore fu possibile confermare, nel 2012, l’esistenza del bosone di Higgs, ma anche portare avanti la ricerca sulla materia oscura e sulle proprietà dell’antimateria.
Grazie al macchinario fu confermata l'esistenza del bosone di Higgs
Il funzionamento del LHC è previsto fino al 2040. Si vuole aumentare significativamente il numero di collisioni tra protoni che riesce a produrre. Queste, attualmente, sono un miliardo al secondo, ed entro il 2025 questa cifra sarà moltiplicata per 5. Apportando delle migliorie all’acceleratore, alcune particelle che oggi sono invisibili potranno essere individuate.
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