Participation in the largest particle physics laboratory in the world would favor the development of national science and industry
At the end of June, Brazil reaffirmed its interest in participating as a member country of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The demonstration was made by Minister Marcos Pontes, who visited that research center together with a diplomatic mission from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications (MCTIC). For professor Jun Takahashi, from the Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics (IFGW) at Unicamp, who was also at CERN on the occasion, if confirmed, Brazil's entry as a member country of the laboratory should bring a series of advantages for both science and science. as well as for national industry.
Negotiations for Brazil's admission as a member of CERN began a few years ago. With Pontes' visit to the laboratory, the expectation is that the procedures will be accelerated. The Center was founded in 1954. It currently has 23 member countries. The laboratory is equipped with six particle accelerators, the largest of which, called LHC, was put into operation in 2008. The equipment is 27 km in circumference and was built more than 100 meters deep, near Geneva, on the border between Switzerland and France.
According to Takahashi, Brazilian researchers already use the resources available at CERN. It turns out, however, that this participation is by way of collaboration. If it becomes a member country of the laboratory, Brazil will have some prerogatives. “According to the statutes of the organization that manages CERN, only companies from member countries can act jointly in research carried out in the laboratory and commercialize the products they generate. This is an important point and one in which Minister Marcos Pontes showed a lot of interest”, informs the IFGW-Unicamp professor.
Takahashi gives a hypothetical example of how Brazilian industry could benefit from Brazil's more effective participation in the research center. He recalls that the country has the world's largest reserves of niobium, a metal used, for example, in the production of superconducting magnets, such as those that make up the LHC accelerator. “If a national company were interested in developing a new generation of superconducting magnets, it could make use of both the tooling and the shared knowledge provided by CERN”, he infers.
Furthermore, as a member country, Brazil could also have its scientists hired to work in the laboratory, as well as being entitled to a given number of scholarships intended for teachers, researchers and postgraduate students. “Currently, we have access to some scholarships, but the number is much lower than that allocated to member countries”, explains Takahashi. Another advantage generated by a possible new status of the country in the laboratory is that the exchange of knowledge between different research groups, which already occurs, would be intensified.
As a CERN user for several years, Takahashi knows the laboratory environment well. According to him, one of the most important aspects is the collaborative way in which projects are carried out. “We do science with the participation of experts from different countries. The most interesting thing about this diversity is that each person has a different view of a given problem, which makes solutions emerge in a more creative way,” he understands. The IFGW-Unicamp professor is part of a research project called ALICE, which brings together around a thousand physicists and technicians from 30 countries. The experiment aims to promote and analyze heavy ion collisions. Information regarding these collisions is captured through different types of internal detectors, which allow researchers to observe the phenomena caused within the experiment.
Both ALICE and the other projects underway at CERN have a mission that is not at all trivial: to elucidate enigmas such as “what is matter?”, “what is matter made of?”, “what is the origin of matter?” and “what happened to the antimatter in the universe?” In other words, what scientists seek is to decipher phenomena closely linked to the origin of the universe and, consequently, of the human species. In this aspect, CERN differs greatly from the Sirius Project, which is under construction in Campinas. The Brazilian laboratory is also equipped with a particle accelerator. The equipment, which emits synchrotron light, works like a giant microscope.
By shining light on a certain material, researchers can analyze its molecular, atomic and electronic structure, which opens up the prospect of carrying out research in practically all areas of knowledge, with the potential to solve some of today's major problems. . “I would say that Sirius and CERN are complementary laboratories. The first is more focused on basic research. Our greatest concern is to understand the fundamental laws of nature. The second is more aimed at applied research. I think the trend is that, if Brazil becomes a member country of CERN, the existing collaborations between the two research centers will become even more frequent”, predicts Takahashi.
