Cari Cesarotti

So one of the most fundamental challenges that we would have to overcome if we were to make this amazing new machine would be to accelerate particles that decay, which we have never even tried to do on this kind of scale before.

So one of the most fundamental challenges that we would have to overcome if we were to make this amazing new machine would be to accelerate particles that decay, which we have never even tried to do on this kind of scale before.

Yeah, and when you say it like that, not so bad, eh? Just be quick. It's fine.

Yeah, and when you say it like that, not so bad, eh? Just be quick. It's fine.

That's right. Yeah, so this is already hard. So what we would need to do to make all the muons, we produce them as tertiary particles. So usually what would happen is if we have protons.

That's right. Yeah, so this is already hard. So what we would need to do to make all the muons, we produce them as tertiary particles. So usually what would happen is if we have protons.

I know. With protons or electrons, basically you just ionize things, and there's all your particles. They're stable, they're abundant. But with muons, what we do first is we need to accelerate protons to pretty low energies, so order of a couple GeV.

I know. With protons or electrons, basically you just ionize things, and there's all your particles. They're stable, they're abundant. But with muons, what we do first is we need to accelerate protons to pretty low energies, so order of a couple GeV.

And again, for reference, at the LHC, we collide things at TeV, so 1,000 times lower than what we do at the main collider, but still with some acceleration technology. So we accelerate protons to a couple of GeV, and then we just dump it into some chunk of metal. So sometimes lead, sometimes tungsten. The chunk of metal that we dump into is, in fact, a very sophisticated field of research.

And again, for reference, at the LHC, we collide things at TeV, so 1,000 times lower than what we do at the main collider, but still with some acceleration technology. So we accelerate protons to a couple of GeV, and then we just dump it into some chunk of metal. So sometimes lead, sometimes tungsten. The chunk of metal that we dump into is, in fact, a very sophisticated field of research.

So my apologies to people who work on targetry. But you dump your protons into this material. And then they scatter around and they produce mesons. So mesons are even simpler in some ways than protons. Protons are baryons because they have three quarks. Mesons have a quark and an anti-quark. And they're lighter than baryons most of the time because they're made of less stuff.

So my apologies to people who work on targetry. But you dump your protons into this material. And then they scatter around and they produce mesons. So mesons are even simpler in some ways than protons. Protons are baryons because they have three quarks. Mesons have a quark and an anti-quark. And they're lighter than baryons most of the time because they're made of less stuff.

So these mesons can be produced. And because they're lighter than the proton, that's usually what... they'll be producing in the scattering process. And you make a ton of mesons in this process. And then the mesons are also unstable. And then they want to decay. So a big way that mesons tend to decay is into muons. Almost primarily, they always decay into muons and a muon neutrino.

So these mesons can be produced. And because they're lighter than the proton, that's usually what... they'll be producing in the scattering process. And you make a ton of mesons in this process. And then the mesons are also unstable. And then they want to decay. So a big way that mesons tend to decay is into muons. Almost primarily, they always decay into muons and a muon neutrino.

And so from there, you have this big cloud of muons that are being produced by this target. But because your protons are slow, particles aren't boosted forward. And because your mesons are even slower than your protons, they're also not very forward. So you have this really huge cloud of muons that are not at all bunched together in the pin-tight way that we would need to collide them.

And so from there, you have this big cloud of muons that are being produced by this target. But because your protons are slow, particles aren't boosted forward. And because your mesons are even slower than your protons, they're also not very forward. So you have this really huge cloud of muons that are not at all bunched together in the pin-tight way that we would need to collide them.

So that's just the first step. And after this already extremely difficult to engineer and optimize step, you have a something that couldn't even begin to be accelerated. But you have your muons at least.

So that's just the first step. And after this already extremely difficult to engineer and optimize step, you have a something that couldn't even begin to be accelerated. But you have your muons at least.

uh yeah yeah so this is this is something that we do need to worry about because of how tight we need that muon bunch to be um basically because you want to collide it into another bunch and if they're all big and puffy that's never going to happen exactly right it's like colliding if you you like bb pellets right it's like the further away they get the more diffuse they are and the fact that you might collide one bb pellet with another after they travel

uh yeah yeah so this is this is something that we do need to worry about because of how tight we need that muon bunch to be um basically because you want to collide it into another bunch and if they're all big and puffy that's never going to happen exactly right it's like colliding if you you like bb pellets right it's like the further away they get the more diffuse they are and the fact that you might collide one bb pellet with another after they travel