China unveils record-breaking particle accelerator HIAF
Quick Look
- China has launched the High Intensity Heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) in Huizhou, Guangdong, a record-breaking particle accelerator capable of producing the world's most intense beams of charged atoms.
- This 2.6 billion yuan facility will aid research in cancer treatment and spacecraft materials.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
China has completed construction and begun scientific operations at the High Intensity Heavy-ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) in Huizhou, Guangdong, after 16 years of development.
China has brought online a record-breaking particle accelerator that can produce the world’s most intense beams of charged atoms.
It gives scientists a new tool to create previously unknown atomic nuclei and advance research on cancer treatment and spacecraft materials.
Scientific operations have now begun at the 2.6 billion yuan (US$384.1 million) facility in Huizhou, Guangdong province after construction was completed on Tuesday, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Known as the High Intensity Heavy-ion Accelerator Facility – or HIAF – it was developed over 16 years by researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics in Lanzhou, Gansu and their collaborators.
The machine can pack up to eight times as many atoms into each pulse as the previous world record, held by a German particle accelerator in Darmstadt.
Unlike most comparable facilities in operation – including the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams in the United States – HIAF combines a 100-metre-long linear accelerator, a 570-metre-circumference circular accelerator and storage rings into a single complex.
Open Questions
- What specific new atomic nuclei will be created?
- What are the initial research priorities for HIAF?
- How will HIAF's capabilities compare in practice to other facilities?
