What would happen to me in an atom smasher?

[Whack-a-Mole]

Barring issues of suffocation what would the effect on me if I stood in the path of the beam of particles in the Large Hadron Collider? Or, betters still, if I stood at the point where the two streams of particles actually collide? They say each stream will get a power of 7TeV and so collide with a combined energy of 14TeV. That is quite a lot but then we are talking about a handful of protons.

I ask not because I want to try but because another forum I participate in has some people asking questions about the LHC ending the world. Those have been debunked very well but some wonder if there is an “accident” of some sort. My guess is if the pipe broke while in operation and the particles came spewing out the end into the tunnel a person there probably wouldn’t notice anything. Then I realized I really have no clue what it would look like or do to someone standing there. Flash of light? A boom? Vaporize everything within a few feet? Vaporize Geneva?

So, anyone have an idea?

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

Well, there’s the case of Anatoli Bugorski, a Russian scientist who had pretty much exactly happen to him what you’re describing – he stuck his head in the particle beam of the then-strongest Soviet synchrotron U-70. Of course, the LHC has a much more powerful beam, so you’d have to scale up the effect, but what happened to him was:

@Wikipedia

Bugorski was leaning over the piece of equipment when he stuck his head in the part through which the proton beam was running. Reportedly, he saw a flash “brighter than a thousand suns”, but did not feel any pain. The beam measured about 2000 gray when it entered Bugorski’s skull, and about 3000 gray when it exited after colliding with the inside of his head.

The left half of Bugorski’s face swelled up beyond recognition, and over the next several days started peeling off, showing the path that the proton beam (moving near the speed of light) had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that about 5 to 6 grays is enough to kill a person, Bugorski was taken to a clinic in Moscow where the doctors could observe his expected demise. However, Bugorski survived and even completed his Ph.D. There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly. Bugorski completely lost hearing in the left ear and only a constant, unpleasant internal noise remained. The left half of his face was frozen, due to the destruction of nerves, and has not aged. He is able to function perfectly well, save the fact that he has occasional petit mal seizures and very occasional grand mal seizures.

[Whack-a-Mole]

@Half Man Half Wit

Well, there’s the case of Anatoli Bugorski, a Russian scientist who had pretty much exactly happen to him what you’re describing – he stuck his head in the particle beam of the then-strongest Soviet synchrotron U-70. Of course, the LHC has a much more powerful beam, so you’d have to scale up the effect, but what happened to him was:

Thanks! That is very helpful. I never imagined standing in the beam would be healthy but lets me know far from vaporizing Geneva or the earth it didn’t even manage that with a guy’s head.

I am still curious though if I were able to watch the place where collisions take place would I see anything? Tiny, mini-nukes going off or would the whole thing be invisible to me?

[Half_Man_Half_Wit]

@Whack-a-Mole

I am still curious though if I were able to watch the place where collisions take place would I see anything? Tiny, mini-nukes going off or would the whole thing be invisible to me?

I think the only thing you’d be able to see would be either Cerenkov radiation (light emitted by particles traversing an insulator at a speed greater than the speed of light in the medium [though obviously lower than the vacuum speed of light]) of particles directly passing through your eyeballs, or possibly the ‘white flashes’ astronauts see when cosmic radiation hits their retinas, but I think those have been found to be the result of rather heavy particles (alpha particles or other ions), which won’t be created in LHC collisions. That’s provided you’re not behind some kind of shielding, so that the emitted particles can directly interact with your eyes; otherwise, I don’t think there’d be much to see, light could only be emitted at the points where the particle beam/collision products interacted with matter in some fashion. I think.

[Szlater]

Isn’t this the principle behind radiotherapy/radiosurgery using a linear accelerator?

[WhyNot]

@Half Man Half Wit

The left half of his face was frozen, due to the destruction of nerves, and has not aged.

Next Botox, anyone?

[Whack-a-Mole]

@WhyNot

Next Botox, anyone?

Funny thing is the same thing occurred to me. If you can get rid of the face swelling out of all proportion, face melting off later and seizure issue they might be on to something here.

[Szlater]

@Whack-a-Mole

Funny thing is the same thing occurred to me. If you can get rid of the face swelling out of all proportion, face melting off later and seizure issue they might be on to something here.

Well you could if you were to use stereotactic conformal planning. You might have issues with an increased risk of future brain tumours though (not much though).