I recently came up with an idea for a new type of particle accelerator that could potentially be twice as efficient as present accelerators are. Ordinary particle accelerators are circular and send two beams of particles in opposite directions around the accelerator and slam them into each other. I realized that there could potentially be a more efficient shape in which to build an accelerator than a circle; a figure eight, or at least something reminiscent of a figure eight.

 

Even though a circle is the most efficient shape to accelerate particles in, a figure eight could be made to have two circles in them simply by drawing a half-circle on both sides of the intersection point. Now, if a particle accelerator was made like this, it would be possible to have two beams of particles travelling in opposite directions around both circles (in other words four particle beams in total) and them having all four of them collide at the same time in the intersection point of the figure-eight; twice the numbers of beams, twice the energy when they collide.

 

The good thing about this is that if it worked, particle accelerators could be made two times smaller than they currently are while still producing the same results. There is a picture of the geneal shape of the new type of accelerator in the attachment.

Despite the engineering challenges of having four beams travelling at 0.9999... times the speed of light collide at the same point, you are neglecting the fact that to get particles going this fast, you have to first accelerate them. LHC is so large becuase it takes a long time to get protons moving that fast. So you'd get twice the luminosity (two times as many collisions) but only half the center of mass energy.

 

Keep thinking!