Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider have proven that the alchemists were right – lead can be turned into gold. True, the process requires enormous energy consumption, and the amount of precious metal is microscopic.
Experiments at the ALICE detector have shown that when lead nuclei collide at high speeds, trace amounts of gold are formed. Scientists used nuclei accelerated to near-light speeds, which, flying close to each other, created powerful electromagnetic fields. These fields caused photon-nuclear interactions, as a result of which neutrons and protons were torn off lead, turning it into other elements, including gold.
When lead nuclei are accelerated in a collider, intense electromagnetic fields are formed around them. Photons arising in these fields interact with nuclei, knocking particles out of them. As a result, lead (82 protons) loses several particles, turning into thallium, mercury and finally gold (79 protons). However, the resulting nuclei are unstable and decay quickly.
During the LHC’s second cycle (2015–2018), scientists detected about 86 billion gold nuclei, equivalent to just 29 picograms. In the third run of the collider, the gold yield almost doubled, but even in this case, it would take about 500 million years of continuous operation of the accelerator to obtain 1 gram.
ALICE detectors record the protons and neutrons emitted during the reaction, as well as the deviation of the modified nuclei from the main beam. This allows us to determine the composition of new elements.
“Thanks to the ALICE detector, we were able to systematically observe the formation of gold in the LHC for the first time,” noted physicist Ulyana Dmitrieva from the ALICE collaboration.
Although the technology has no practical application yet, the experiment confirms that the ancient dream of alchemists is feasible – it just required advanced science, not magic.
Source: naked-science.ru
Photo: Experiment scheme / © CERN
