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Article: Annihilations at 2 trillion volts; Fermilab now has the world's most powerful proton-antiproton collider.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- September 28, 1985
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1985 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Two trillion electron-volts (2 TeV) equals the rest mass of somewhat more than 2,000 protons. This is the amount of energy that will ultimately be available from proton-antiproton collisions in the Tevatron at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Ill. Each colliding proton and antiproton will carry half the amount, more than 1,000 times its own rest energy. In the collisions, proton and antiproton will annihilate each other, forming a blob of pure energy, which will then transform itself into new phenomena. With such a huge amount of energy (by particle physics standards) available, physicists hope to see some of the very massive (again by ...