Production and decay of photons

Credit: CERN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

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Caption: Production and decay of photons in the L3 detector at CERN, the particle physics laboratory outside Geneva. In this computer display, the detector is represented schematically in white. An electron & positron, accelerated to high energy in CERN's LEP collider, have entered unseen from left and right along the beam pipe that runs through the detector & annihilated at centre. Their energy materialises in the form of a new electron & positron (blue tracks & 'towers') and 3 photons. Being neutral, the photons leave no track, but are detected when they deposit energy (red towers) in L3's electro- magnetic calorimeter. The photon is the carrier particle of the electromagnetic force.

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Keywords: cern, computer screen, electronic display, electrons, gauge bosons, high-energy physics, l3 detector, lep collider, particle physics research, photons, positrons, subatomic particles, the particle odyssey

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