Technologies for accelerators and detectors

In recent decades, numerous cutting-edge technologies for particle physics experiments, in particular the LHC accelerator, have been developed and refined with an essential contribution from Italy and INFN. These technologies range from magnetic superconductors, kept at a temperature a little above absolute zero, which are needed to maintain the particles along a circular trajectory by minimising energy dispersion, to the so-called “resonant cavities”. These cavities are indispensable for accelerating charged particles while keeping them at their characteristic resonance frequency, passing through collimators (used to focus the particle beams and protect the accelerator from energy losses) and particle injection and extraction systems, which are essential for ensuring the precision and efficiency of the experiments.
Detectors used in particle physics experiments may also rely on sophisticated technologies, often developed ad hoc.

Resonant cavity (RFQ) at INFN National Laboratories of Legnaro. (© INFN, D. Ceccato)

Images of the CMS Tracker Inner Barrel (© CMS Collection.CERN), M. Brice)

Detectors based on semiconductors, in particularon silicon, are common in tracking devices. These convert the energy of particles into electric signals, providing a detailed track of their trajectories.
Another somewhat widespread technique is that of scintillation counters, which emit light in interacting with charged particles or high energy photons, thus providing information about the presence and energy of particles. Then there are calorimeters, which convert the energy of a particle hitting a signal that can be of various kinds (electric, optical, thermal, acoustic), while maintaining the proportionality between energy released and signal gathered. In particular, there are electromagnetic calorimeters, for detecting electrons and photons, and hadronic calorimeters, which aim to observe “hadrons”, i.e. particles subject to strong interaction. Of course, modern technologies for detectors also require advanced, front-end electronics for amplifying, processing, and recording signals coming from detection sensors.

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Particle accelerators

Particle accelerators are instruments that have played a very important role in physics (and not just physics) for a long time, both for fundamental research and for applications.

Detectors

Detectors are essential instruments in experimental research, in physics as in many other scientific disciplines. In particle physics, in particular, the experiments use complex detection systems for studying particle collisions, with the goal of tracking their trajectories, measuring their physical parameters, and identifying their type.

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Particle accelerators

Detectors