Light bending material facilitates the search for new particles

Particle physicists have a hard time identifying all the elementary particles created in their particle accelerators. But now researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have designed a material that makes it much easier to distinguish the particles.

Chalmers researcher Philippe Tassin and his colleagues at the Free University of Brussels have designed a material that manipulates the so-called Cherenkov cone so that also particles with high momentum get a distinct light cone angle too.

“The result is that even particles with large momentum can be efficiently separated and identified,” says Philippe Tassin.

Ginis, V. ; Danckaert, J. ; Veretennicoff, I. ; and Tassin, P., Controlling Cherenkov Radiation with Transformation-Optical Metamaterials (2014). Physical Review Letters (2014); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.167402.

More information: http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/ap/news/Pages/Pressrelease-Light-bending-material-facilitates-the-search-for-new-particles.aspx

Caption: Cherenkov light cone created by particles moving through a metamaterial designed by Chalmers researcher Philippe Tassin and colleagues. The material is constituted by silver cylinders, a few tens of nanometers thick, embedded in a nonconductive material. Image: Vincent Ginis.