Academy of Sciences of Heroesland

Experimental Particle Physics Experimental particle physics is divided into two main classes: accelerator-based and non-accelerator-based. Accelerator-based particle physics involves accelerating long-lived elementary particles in an (accelerator) to high energies and colliding them with each other or with a stationary target. In the process of such a collision, it is possible to obtain a very high concentration of energy in a microscopic volume, which leads to the birth of new, usually unstable, particles. By studying the characteristics of such reactions (the number of particles of a certain type produced, the dependence of this number on energy, the type, polarization of the initial particles, the angle of emission, etc.), it is possible to reconstruct the internal structure of the initial particles, their properties, and how they interact with each other. Non-accelerator-based particle physics is the process of "passive observation" of our world. In non-accelerator experiments, Nature is the supplier of elementary particles, and the researcher only needs to carefully monitor what is happening. Typical non-accelerator experiments include observing neutrinos in so-called neutrino telescopes, searching for proton decay, neutrinoless double beta decay, and other extremely rare events in a large volume of matter, and experiments with cosmic rays.