Why are high energies needed in collision experiments?
I believe it has something to do with the interactions needed between particles to find other particles only happening at high energies? Is this the correct reason or is something else at play?
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$\begingroup$ Do you mean to ask why we want to collide stuff at high energies? The detectors themselves don't need the energy. $\endgroup$– ACuriousMind ♦Commented May 3, 2015 at 15:10
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$\begingroup$ Yes that is what I mean sorry about any ambiguity. $\endgroup$– tey yrerytCommented May 3, 2015 at 15:11
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$\begingroup$ You actually have it the wrong way round. Particle Physics is often called High Energy Physics. We use particle accelerators because its the easiest way to get (kinetic) high energies. It is also possible to use nuclear reactors and decaying isotopes, but it much harder to get the energies we are experimenting with today. $\endgroup$– AronCommented May 3, 2015 at 15:16
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1 Answer
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It comes from the fact that we need high energies to get more mass in the result. The higher energy the particles are when collided, the more mass will come out in the end due to conservation of mass-energy.
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$\begingroup$ Okay so since mass is essentially energy we use more energy to get more mass out at the end? How is this useful... is it more mass makes it easier to detect or something? $\endgroup$ Commented May 3, 2015 at 15:18
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1$\begingroup$ @teyyreryt Some particles have high masses, so to generate them, we must have high energies. $\endgroup$– Jimmy360Commented May 3, 2015 at 15:24
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$\begingroup$ Its also true its the only way to probe qcd events as the qcd coupling becomes weaker at higher energies and we are allowed to expand processes in series of feynman diagrams $\endgroup$ Commented May 3, 2015 at 18:27