How Do We Experiment with Tiny Particles? Colliding-Beam Experiments
In a colliding-beam experiment two beams of high-energy particles are made
to cross each other.
The advantage of this arrangement is that both beams have significant
kinetic energy,
so a collision between them is more likely to produce a higher mass particle
than would a fixed-target collision (with the one beam) at the same energy.
Since we are dealing with particles with a lot of momentum,
these particles have short wavelengths and make excellent probes.
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