Scientists succeed in accelerating atom in Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

For the first time, on July 25, 2018, scientists succeeded in accelerating atoms. Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle accelerator available on Earth. It is located at the CERN laboratory in Geneva. Earlier, physicists had succeeded in accelerating protons and atomic nuclei. But atom is accelerated for the first time.   

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and high level of energies

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was established with the goal of providing subatomic particles with energies otherwise impossible on Earth. The higher energy level can then be used to find the fundamental nature of the universe. Ideally, anything that vaporizes can be put inside Large Hadron Collider for accelerating.   The Large Hadron Collider was being used to accelerate protons or entire atomic nuclei. Protons possess the positive energy in an atomic nucleus. In the accelerating process, the negatively charged electrons were   being stripped of.  But in this round of experiment, scientists succeeded in accelerating a beam of lead atoms with at least one electron attached.   Since only one electron was attached it was basically an ion and not an atom. The researchers   now dream of accelerating atoms in a next round of experiments.  

How did physicists accelerate atoms in the Large Hadron Collider? 

The scientists achieved the rare feat by accelerating ionized lead atoms.  The LHC normally starts with neutral lead atoms or a bottle of hydrogen gas. They are made to travel through a chain of smaller particle accelerators. During this journey, oscillating magnetic fields remove many of the electrons from the lead atoms. The lead atoms lose their remaining electrons when they pass through a metal foil before entering the 17-mile-round ring. 

Each lead atom normally contains 82 electrons. In this experiment, the researchers adjusted the  width of the foil  to ensure that that at least one electron remained attached to the lead atom before entering round ring. The researchers thus stripped away 81 electrons giving the particle an electric charge and the single electron coupled with the lead nucleus was subjected to acceleration. They succeeded in keeping the beam circulating in LHC for two hours.  In their earlier experiments they had accelerated protons and atomic nuclei without any electron hangers-on.  

How can the LHC converted as a gamma-ray factory?

With this success, scientists hope that the Large Hadron Collider could be used as a gamma-ray factory in future.  Gamma rays are a type of high energy light. Scientists expect that this can be produced by hitting beams of ionized atoms with laser light. Presently gamma rays are produced from beams of electrons. But scientists hope that light will jostle electrons of atoms into higher energy levels and that gamma rays will be produced when the accelerated atoms are returned to lower energy levels.  They also expect that Large Hadron Collider will support this activity also. 

Gamma rays and future experiments

High energy gamma rays will be a boost in the research of many scientific projects, especially in the research of   certain types of dark matter. These are mysterious particles believed to exist in the universe but are yet to be detected.  High energy gamma rays can also be used for producing beams of  heavy, electron like particles called muons. This will enlarge the scope of scientific researches. 
The success of the experiment will help to unravel the mysteries of particle physics.

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