China plans ‘paradise for physicists’ with particle colliders that will test the strongest forces in the universe
- Guangdong becomes focus as China races the US to build bigger particle accelerators
- Scientist says the competition between the two countries will ultimately be for the good of the human race
Scientists in southern China are planning to create machines that will be used to unravel the mysteries of the building blocks of the universe.
They said two ring-shaped electron-ion colliders – one 2km (1.2 miles) long – will be built in Huizhou, a city in Guangdong province, beginning in 2025 and they will be designed to accelerate electrons to close to the speed of light.
The project – known as the Electron-Ion Collider of China, or EICC – will see electrons being fired at the nuclei of heavy elements such as iron or uranium at high speeds.
The scientists said the machines – among the biggest of their kind – would act as “cameras” when these collisions took place. This will allow them to study what is known as the “strong” nuclear force at work, as well as the particles, known as gluons, that carry it.
In nature, there are four known forces – gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak force. The strong force is equal to gravity multiplied by 100 undecillion, or one followed by 38 zeros.