◎ Science and Technology Daily reporter Lu Chengkuan
"Starting at 8 p.m. on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, I was on night duty in the straight line section of the collider. In the early hours of the morning, I heard a hardware failure alarm sound, and after I confirmed the cause of the failure, the equipment quickly returned to normal automatically. This is the first time that Wei Yanru, an assistant researcher at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is on night duty after the New Year, during which she has been paying attention to the hardware status of the straight line to ensure that the electron beam injection can be carried out normally the next day.
Discovering new particles is a common goal of high-energy physicists. An important way to find new particles is to accelerate the particle beam to a high energy close to the speed of light and collide, which needs to be done with the help of a huge scientific device, which is the collider.
"The experiment we are doing is to use the Beijing positron-negative electron collider to conduct τ-japonica physics research and explore the smallest units of matter composition." Wei Yanru said.
Entering the main control hall of the Beijing positron-negative collider, the real sand table of the major renovation project of the collider that is constantly flashing is particularly eye-catching. From the sand table model, the Beijing positron-negative electron collider looks like a huge badminton racket, consisting of four major parts, including an injector, a storage ring, a Beijing spectrometer and a Beijing synchrotron radiation device.
Science and Technology Daily reporter Lu Chengkuan photographed
The racket handle of this huge badminton racket is a 202-meter-long linear accelerator, that is, an injector, which provides a beam of positive and negative electrons for the storage ring; the racket frame is a ring accelerator with a circumference of 240 meters, that is, the storage ring, where positive and negative electrons are stored and collided; the Beijing spectrometer is located at the top of the racket, equivalent to the "eye" of the Beijing positron-negative electron collider, which is used to capture the information of secondary charged particles and neutral particles generated by the collision, reconstruct the collision process, thereby studying the microstructure of matter and uncovering the mysteries of the universe Synchrotron radiation devices are located around the storage ring and mainly provide synchrotron radiation light for synchrotron radiation research.
Simply put, the Beijing Positron-Electron Collider is an experimental device for high-energy physics research, and it has been repeating the process of "collision and birth of new particles".
"Once the collider experiment begins, it needs to run 24 hours a day, whether on holidays or holidays, until the end of the experiment. During the experiment, we worked day shifts and night shifts, and each shift required at least 26 people to be on duty. Wei Yanru introduced.
Most of the time, Wei Yanru was on duty in the central control room, where two people were usually needed. "During the duty, we have to keep staring at the control screen, an hour or so to complete a positive and negative electron beam injection, after the injection is completed, we have to always pay attention to and adjust the status and brightness of the electron beam at any time, at the same time, if there is a fault, it also needs to be dealt with in time." Even at meal time, we couldn't leave, it was all the canteen staff who sent us over. Wei Yanru said.
For overtime during the Spring Festival, Wei Yanru's family is also very supportive. "During the Spring Festival, our experiments are running normally, we are on duty normally according to the work arrangement, this is the work to be completed, and they understand the nature of my work." When it comes to overtime, Wei Yanru is very calm.
Some people have figuratively compared the Beijing positron-negative electron collider to a "super particle cannon." It works like two cars driving in opposite directions on different tracks, accelerating non-stop, and when the speed reaches close to the speed of light, adjusting the track so that it collides at a specified position, at which point a large number of "fragments" will be generated, and these "fragments" are the secondary particles that physicists want to study.
"It is the use of two opposing positive and negative electron beams for collision, using a huge interaction energy to explore the microstructure of matter." Wei Yanru said that the work of physicists is to analyze the characteristic parameters of secondary particles such as charge, momentum, energy and so on from the massive data generated by experiments, so as to uncover the mysteries of the microscopic world.
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Editor: Zhang Shuang
Review: Yue Liang
Final Judgement: Wang Yu