What is a GeV/beam? What is 45.6GeV/beam for 1 electron only

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In summary, the conversation discusses the L3 experiment and the LEP collider, and converting energy measurements to determine the mass gain of a single electron/positron. The "per beam" refers to the energy of both beams containing particles with energy 45.6 GeV. The LEP collider was later upgraded to produce even higher energies for potential Higgs boson detection.
  • #1
applestrudle
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I'm doing an essay on L3 experiment and the LEP collider and the first energy the electrons and positrons had were "45.6GeV/beam". I want to convert this to the amount of energy for one electron/positron and see how much mass a single electron/positron gains.

I know 1GeV = 10^9 * 1.6 x 10^-19 J

and I know E = mc^2 +(pc)^2

and electron mass 9.11 x 10^-31kg but I need to know what the "per beam" bit means?!

Thank you
 
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  • #2
applestrudle said:
I need to know what the "per beam" bit means?!

I think what they mean is that both beams (the beam of electrons and the beam of positrons) contain particles with energy 45.6 GeV.
 
  • #3
Oh? So one electron has 45.6GeV of energy!?
 
  • #4
Right.

(the alternative number is "per collision", 2*45.6 GeV)
 
  • #5
The change of the mass won't exceed the +0.4% of [itex]m_e=511 keV[/itex]
It should be approximately [itex]m_e^{1-loop} (46.5~GeV) \approx 512.6 ~keV [/itex]
 
  • #6
LEP was built to study W and Z physics in high precision. To create a Z boson in an ##e^+ e^-## collision you need at least the ##Z## mass of about 91 GeV. That's why at first they had a total collision energy around this value. So the electron and the positron each have a total energy (including rest energy) around half this value. Later it was upgraded to make even two W bosons (for which you need ##2 m_W \simeq 160 \mathrm{GeV}##). At the very end of its time in the year 2000 they pushed the cm. energy even up to around 210 GeV if I remember right, because there was some hint of a possible Higgs signal. They let LEP even run longer than planned for a while. Then Maiani had to make the difficult decision to stop it, because otherwise the construction of the LHC, using the LEP tunnnel, would have been delayed too much, and such an experiment to be delayed is very expensive!
 
  • #7
They would have needed roughly 125+90=215 GeV (electron+positron->Z->Z+H) and missed it by about 10 GeV (the exclusion limit went up to 115 GeV).
 
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What is a GeV/beam?

A GeV/beam is a unit of measurement in particle physics that represents the amount of energy per particle that is being accelerated or collided. It stands for gigaelectronvolt per beam and is commonly used to measure the energy of particle beams.

What does 45.6GeV/beam mean for 1 electron only?

This means that a single electron is being accelerated or collided with an energy of 45.6 gigaelectronvolts per beam. This is a high energy level and is often used in experiments to study the behavior and properties of subatomic particles.

How is the energy of a particle beam measured in GeV/beam?

The energy of a particle beam is measured by using specialized detectors that measure the momentum and velocity of the particles in the beam. This information is then used to calculate the energy of the beam in units of GeV/beam.

Why is GeV/beam commonly used in particle physics?

GeV/beam is commonly used in particle physics because it is a convenient unit for measuring the high energies involved in particle accelerators and collisions. It is also a unit that is easily understood and used by scientists around the world.

Is GeV/beam the only unit for measuring particle beam energy?

No, there are other units that can be used to measure particle beam energy such as MeV/beam (megaelectronvolt per beam) and TeV/beam (teraelectronvolt per beam). However, GeV/beam is commonly used in particle physics due to its relevance to the energy levels involved in these experiments.

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