Where will the energy produced in LHC go?

Question

Hi folks,

First of all, I'm not a physicist.

I only know these facts:

Energy doesn't come from nowhere.

Energy doesn't vanish.

Energy just changes form.

I wasn't able to find out on the web, what will emit or slow down the energy emerged in LHC Tunnels after activation. Does anyone have a clue?

p.s.: If I am not right about the facts, please let me know!

Greets, H.

Answer 1

Well, they have many many big magnets around the outside of the tunnel which are used to give the particles inside energy, and also to keep them on course.

When the particles hit each other, assuming a best case scenario direct hit, all of their kinetic energy and rest energy is converted into many other particles, which all explode in a shower since they will all have their own kinetic energy also.

It is hoped however that the measurable energy before impact will be greater than the energy after though, and that the missing amount of energy will be equal to the mass of a graviton which has left this dimension. That will be seen as evidence for (but not proof of) string theory.

Answer 2

As you say energy is only converted from one form to another. It will either be dissipated as heat or noise or it will remain in the particles as kinetic energy, or emitted in photons (light).

If the colliding particles create new particles some energy will be converted to mass, as mass and energy are equivalent (E=mc^2 where E is energy, m is mass and c is the speed of light).

These particles may be short lived and decay to lighter particles, again emitting photons with the energy corresponding to mass difference.

Answer 3

That's a very good question.  I was surprised to discover about two months ago just how much energy is concentrated in the particle beams.  Although they only contain picograms of matter, it's moving at such high speed that, between them, the two counter-rotating beams contain as much energy as about 50 kg of high explosive.  If either beam was to strike the walls of the tunnel, say if one of the guiding magnets failed, you'd get a very expensive firework display.  But if all goes well, the energy is dissipated much more slowly.  Particles will collide head-on at very infrequent intervals to create exotic particles.  Some of these particles will penetrate the walls of the tunnel to great depths.  In the case of neutrinos they'll go right through the Earth and shoot off into space.  If you shoot a neutrino beam into a block of lead 50 light years thick, only about half of them will be absorbed.  So the answer to your question is that in a successful LHC experiment, a large part of the energy consumed ends up in outer space, and the rest is absorbed by the environment, up to several metres away from the tunnel, over the entire period the beams are circulating and particles are colliding.  Most of this energy ends up as heat.  50 kg of high explosive only contains about as much energy as the same mass of petrol.  You can convert this energy into heat slowly without anything dramatic happening.  My guess is that precautions need to be taken to protect people and instruments from radiation exposure.  If you absorb a few joules of heat energy it won't do you much damage, but the same amount of energy in the form of gamma rays would kill you.