Throughout history, medieval alchemists have been captivated by the notion of transforming lead into gold, a practice known as chrysopoeia. While these early scientists relied on mystical concepts like the philosopher's stone, recent discoveries suggest that modern technology, specifically the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), might be more effective in achieving this ancient dream. Located near Geneva, CERN’s LHC has unveiled astonishing results that highlight the cutting-edge capabilities of particle physics.
Between 2015 and 2018, during its second run, the LHC successfully produced approximately 86 billion gold nuclei by colliding lead atoms at an astonishing speed of 99.999993% of the speed of light. Although this process resulted in a minuscule quantity of gold—just 29 trillionths of a gram—the implications are profound. This ephemeral gold, created from high-energy collisions, disintegrates almost instantaneously, yet it was detected by the sophisticated instruments of the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) collaboration.
Marco van Leeuwen, a spokesperson for ALICE, expressed his enthusiasm about the achievement, stating, “It is impressive to see that our detectors can handle head-on collisions producing thousands of particles, while also being sensitive to collisions where only a few particles are produced at a time.” This capability allows scientists to explore rare electromagnetic processes like nuclear transmutation, thereby bridging the gap between ancient alchemical pursuits and modern scientific inquiry.
The philosophical musings of ancient thinkers like Aristotle posited that the similar densities of lead and gold indicated that lead was merely sick and could be transformed into valuable gold. While this notion was fundamentally flawed, it contained a kernel of truth; lead and gold are adjacent on the periodic table, with gold possessing 79 protons—just three fewer than lead. Consequently, the process of creating gold at particle accelerators requires stripping away only three protons from lead, in addition to some neutrons.
Interestingly, removing one or two protons instead results in the creation of thallium and mercury, respectively. To accurately measure the metals produced during experiments at the LHC, physicists utilized ALICE's highly sensitive Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs). These instruments track the protons and neutrons generated from billions of particle interactions occurring every second within the collider. The findings indicated that, although gold is produced less frequently compared to thallium or mercury, the experiment's third run is generating gold nuclei at a remarkable rate of around 89,000 nuclei per second. This rate is nearly double that of the previous run, highlighting the increased energy levels of the current experiments.
Uliana Dmitrieva, a physicist with the ALICE collaboration, emphasized the significance of the current analysis, stating, “This is the first time we have systematically detected and analyzed the signature of gold production at the LHC experimentally.” As scientists continue to push the boundaries of particle physics, the age-old dream of transmuting lead into gold may not be as far-fetched as once thought. The innovative technology of the LHC not only enhances our understanding of the universe but also redefines the possibilities of nuclear transmutation in contemporary science.
