Inside the mysteries of the light fantastic

Article Abstract:

At the Desy laboratory outside Hamburg, Germany, scientists are using a machine called Hera to accellerate subatomic particles and make them collide, smashing them and revealing details about their interiors. Results have already shown that light is not as simple as had been thought. Physicists have long regarded light as a stream of elementary particles called photons but collisions in Hera have revealed them not to be simple particles with zero size. Instead they behave as an extremely complex extended jumble of quarks, antiquarks, electrons and other particles.

Usage, Photons

---

Atomically challenged

Article Abstract:

The H1 and Zeus experiments undertaken in the Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage machine at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron particle physics laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, indicate that the electron may be involved in intimate relations with quarks. This goes against conventional thinking on this subject. Scientists now believe that the electron is more likely to scatter from the quarks at high energies than predicted. It is possible that a new type of particle, known as a 'leptoquark,' is being formed.

Electron-positron interactions

---

Strange case of the unbreakable proton

Article Abstract:

Researchers working with the Hera electron 'microscope' in Hamburg, Germany, have discovered that in some cases where electrons are deliberately collided at very high speeds with protons, the proton can remain intact. This discovery has cast doubt on the so-called Standard Model, which was developed to show how high-energy particles interact with each other by 'exchanging' other particles.

Particles (Nuclear physics), Subatomic particles

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Tripping the light fantastic. Look, everybody, no hands! Painting himself into a corner
• Abstracts: Sons and lovers. Farewell fast cars, hello children. A fantasy of socks and violence
• Abstracts: In the driving seat of the American Dream. The look will live for ever. It suits you, Daphne
• Abstracts: When deportation means death. Better off without a bankroll
• Abstracts: Why does he keep using the C-word? Time to switch off the royal soap opera. A test for Thatcher's children

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.