Physicists team up in Vancouver to tackle mysteries of the universe
VANCOUVER - Some of the world’s greatest minds have collided in Vancouver and launched a new team that will try to solve some of the universe’s deepest secrets.
The physicists have been designing two separate particle colliders, known as linear colliders.
The colliders hurl billions of electrons at positrons — their anti-particles — along kilometre-long superconducting cavities at nearly the speed of light.
Timothy Meyer of TRIUMPH, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, says the results of those collisions help scientists answer questions related to the Big Bang and the evolution of the universe.
He says physicists from all over the world working on the two projects met at TRIUMPH in Vancouver and have agreed to form a team that will develop a new particle accelerator.
Meyer says the meeting also marks the transition between the design and development phases of the new accelerator, which scientists hope will complement a similar accelerator already operating in Europe.
