Excursion in the "State" of the Institute of Nuclear Physics: Where Particles Are Born

What does a child do if he wants to learn what a toy consists of? First he tries to take it to pieces by hand. If he fails, he employs almost scientific methods: the object of the study is accelerated by hand and thrown onto a wall. The result of this test can be fragments, which are then inspected with the help of eyes, hands, and the tongue. If no fragments are formed, the test is repeated with a higher energy of acceleration - until the goal is achieved. Accelerators on out-going beams operate in a similar manner

The next stage in obtaining "fragments" of elementary particles offered accelerators on opposing (colliding) beams. You can imagine two children with identical toys thrown toward each other. In the case of success, there will obviously be a greater number of fragments, but the accuracy in this test should be much higher than in the previous one. One of the first such accelerators was created in 1964 under the supervision of G. I. Budker, the first Director of the Institute of Nuclear Physics SB RAS

More information on these and other subjects you can find in the printed version of our journal.