
Mini antimatter accelerator could rival the likes of the Large Hadron Collider - p4bl0
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180809112435.htm
======
jjgreen
I’ve always imagined that the adjective was needed because under a desk
somewhere, perhaps pedal powered, was a “small hadron collider”

Robert E. A. Harvey, Comment on The Register, 28th December 2011

Prescient!

~~~
InclinedPlane
There are lots of small hadron colliders. Hadrons are just composite particles
made up of quarks and held together by the strong force. This includes
"exotic" particles like mesons and high energy baryons, but it also includes
the "mundane" baryons such as protons and neutrons. So technically any proton
accelerator is a hadron collider. Which includes the first cyclotron, a proton
accelerator built in 1932 that was only 27 inches across, a very "small hadron
collider" indeed.

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saagarjha
> Colliding electron and positron beams could have implications in fundamental
> physics. For example, they could create a higher rate of Higgs bosons than
> the LHC can, allowing physicists to better study its properties.

Didn't the Large Electron-Positron Collider _fail_ to detect evidence of the
Higgs Boson?

~~~
vichu
No, it succeeded in confirming the existence of the Higgs boson. In fact,
that's largely the reason Higgs and Englert were awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physics in 2013.

~~~
magicalhippo
LEP[1] did no such thing, you're talking about the LHC.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Electron%E2%80%93Positro...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Electron%E2%80%93Positron_Collider)

~~~
seiferteric
Wow, I misread the OPs comment as the LHC also and thought I was experiencing
the mandela effect haha.

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magicalhippo
Is this a variant of plasma wakefield accelerator, or something else?

If so, staging is an issue from what I understand. Even at 100GeV/m, you'll
need many stages to reach interesting TeV territory, so this is a crucial
aspect if it wants to beat the LHC.

Some relevant discussion on PhysicsForums:
[https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/two-stage-electron-
wak...](https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/two-stage-electron-wakefield-
acceleration.948303/)

~~~
tgragnato
I read the pdfs but didn't dig in too much, however the main difference seems
to be the generation of a beam of positrons instead of electrons.

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danesparza
I couldn't find it in the article (perhaps I overlooked it) -- but what do
they mean by 'mini'? Especially considering the LHC has a circumference of 16
miles...

~~~
magicalhippo
They mention 100GeV/m gradients in the paper. If you could get that for 150m
you'd have 15 TeV, comparable in energy to LHC (~14 TeV).

As I understand it, you can't just build a pipe and get the full gradient for
X meters. Rather you build a (relatively) small device which has the 100GeV/m
gradient, and then you'd glue many such devices back-to-back. So you get some
overhead from the interconnects etc. Still, with 10x overhead it's "only" one
mile.

The other point is that not all applications need TeV scale. For such
applications maybe just a few stages would be sufficient. In which case it
might be room-size or less.

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mrfusion
I’m really curious about the spacecraft propulsion applications of this.

~~~
imglorp
I was about to laugh at this commenter for watching too much Star Trek but
decided to read a little. Turns out Robert Forward did some work on this and
it's not so bad.

[https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2281](https://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2281)

~~~
mrfusion
Ion drives are just particle accelerators so why not?

------
swebs
>Sorry, the page you are looking for cannot be found.

>It is possible this article may have been removed after being published.

I can't seem to find an archive either.

~~~
magicalhippo
This is the paper the article was based on/linked to:
[https://journals.aps.org/prab/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevAccelB...](https://journals.aps.org/prab/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.21.081301)

PDF is surprisingly freely available.

~~~
jessriedel
It's true that many physics journals aren't open access, but essentially every
paper written since 1992 is available on the arXiv, so not that big of
restriction.

Incidentally, the full text of the article is available in HTML too, which
might be easier on mobile.

[https://journals.aps.org/prab/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevAccelB...](https://journals.aps.org/prab/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.21.081301#fulltext)

~~~
magicalhippo
Sure, just refreshing not having to go the extra step and find it on arXiv :)

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WorkLifeBalance
Article has been removed?

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patagonia
Explain it to me like I’m 5 please?

~~~
HelloNurse
Computer simulations (without actual experiments) of improved advanced
techniques to produce a "shower" of electrons and positrons by hitting a metal
target with a laser, which are then accelerated and confined with a second
laser driving plasma waves.

The figures in the article, with lasers reflected by mirrors and particle
beams going through the mirrors, suggest a very small but decently powerful
single stage accelerator; using this technique as a building block for a large
accelerrator isn't discussed.

------
fenk85
There seems to be a push lately in UK media of running newstories about
"making Britain Great again", just last week we had a story about a new
spaceport, this week there is stories without source about EU caving in to all
brexiteer demands and so on

All while the country is teetering on edge and could drag down its neighbours
into another recession (selfmade this time), the NHS and local authorities
remain in crisis, pound is weakening and inflation keeps going up.

It sucks being stuck sort of speak between 2 of your good neighbours
undergoing a mental breakdown and self harming

~~~
piokoch
I would say there is push lately to picture UK situation in very black colors
and I believe many of those claims are not really justified.

Firstly, inflation is not going up, at least I couldn't find any evidence of
that.

Secondly, looking at the UK trade partners (for instance here
[http://www.worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-
import-p...](http://www.worldstopexports.com/united-kingdoms-top-import-
partners/)) I see that UK has trade deficit will all EU countries, given the
fact that UK has well develop economy they can in fact gain on leaving UK and
relaying on bilateral deals (and I guess those who are bashing UK most will be
first in the queue to start trading with them - Germany approach to Nord
Stream that can be potentially dangerous for EU energy safety shows that when
it comes to money, EU "unity" is thrown away quickly).

Third, weakening pound is actually good for UK, the goods they produce are
cheaper, so event if imported goods are more expensive at some point this will
come to equilibrium.

Fourth, UK has still hidden gems like tax havens here and there, including the
one at the very center of London - quite convenient for all the rich people
who, accidentally, have also a lot of political power and surely they would
not like UK to be hurt too much.

The only danger I see is that Scotland might try to gain independence and walk
away with the oil taken from the North See, this would shrink UK domestic
market and could indeed do some harm.

~~~
simonh
>I see that UK has trade deficit will all EU countries... they can in fact
gain on leaving...

This is an absurd fantasy. If trade deficits on their own made you poorer, the
UK and US would have been reduced to third world status decades ago. The Uk
has very low unemployment, there just isn't a free labour pool available to
move into manufacturing. Hands up anyone from the UK here who wants to give up
their job to go on to a production line, or wants that for their children?
Forcing people out of better paid more valuable jobs into low end
manufacturing, driving up costs for UK consumers, to serve some mercantilist
daydream won't make the UK any richer.

~~~
Chris2048
> there just isn't a free labour pool available to move into manufacturing

Does the government care about manufacturing? They closed the mines and moved
towards a "service economy" last I heard..

> who wants to give up their job to go on to a production line, or wants that
> for their children? Forcing people out of better paid more valuable jobs
> into

There are northern towns that would love those jobs. Their children are
currently at lidl checkout counters and behind pub bars.

~~~
simonh
So we’re going to close all the Lidls and pubs? You’re not making any sense.
By definition those people are already employed and whatever happened in
manufacturing or any other sector, those jobs would still need to be done.

~~~
Chris2048
Maybe those jobs would pay more if there weren't 4 people applying to each
role - enough to buy more options.

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JulianMorrison
Could you get it in a handgun form factor? Asking for a friend.

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grpaceloidsop
Can anyone explain why using antielectrons instead of electrons means the
accelerator can be made smaller ?

