How huge particle detectors actually detect tiny particles

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In part one of our series on particle smashers, we described how accelerators either bring together two light particles (like protons) to study new particles, or two heavy nuclei (like gold) to study the interactions of their components. In both cases, the action takes place in a truly infinitesimal space. If you think about how we normally image something—by bouncing photons off it and seeing how they're changed—it's clearly not possible to actually image one of these collisions using this approach, even if we knew precisely where or when a collision would take place.

Yet, somehow, we manage to create the sort of iconic images of collisions like the ones shown above. The detectors in colliders like the Large Hadron Collider and Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider work by looking at some of the items that come rocketing out of the collisions, producing the sort of traces shown here. Given that data, it's possible for physicists to work their way backwards in order to figure out what went on in the collision itself.

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