Photos: The World's Largest Atom Smasher (LHC)

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Lead-Tungstate Crystals

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

(Image credit: CERN)

ALICE's photon spectrometer contains 3,584 lead-tungstate crystals, a material as transparent as ordinary silica glass but with nearly four times the density. When a high-energy particle passes through one of these crystals it will scintillate, allowing the energy of electrons, positrons and photons to be measured through the 17,920 detection channels.

ALICE Magnet

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider

(Image credit: CERN)

Technicians work on cabling inside the ALICE magnet.

Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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