Physicists’ primary means for developing the understanding of fundamental constituents of matter is by using particle accelerators, where beams of particles moving at relativistic speeds are fired at a target, or two high energy beams moving in opposite directions are brought close together. This may develop understanding of matter because:
- Particles with high enough energy may get close enough to the nucleus to experience the nuclear strong force. The way the particles are scattered can allow details about the nuclear strong force to be determined, e.g. its range
- Higher energies still allow a particle to get close enough to the nucleus that it is absorbed and a new radioisotope is produced. These new isotopes can be studied to determine their properties, which increases the understanding of matter not found in nature. E.g. In 1999, Ununoctium was discovered by bombarding Lead-208 target with krypton ions using an accelerator.
- At even higher energies, the particles may cause the nucleus to shatter and produce new particles. Some of these particles are extremely short lived, though their tracks may be studied in a bubble chamber (or a similar device) where an understanding of their properties may be deduced.
- If the bombarding particle has high enough energy, its de Broglie wavelength is small enough to probe inside smaller particles such as neutrons and protons to allow physicists to develop their understanding about their structure.
