What is This Background?
A Bubble Chamber Simulation
You're looking at a real-time simulation of an idealized bubble chamber—a type of particle detector invented in 1952 that revolutionized our experimental understanding of subatomic physics.
In a real bubble chamber, a tank of superheated liquid hydrogen awaits the arrival of high-energy particles such as protons. When a particle passes through the chamber, it leaves a trail of tiny ionization bubbles in its wake—like a jet's contrail across the sky. These ghostly spirals and curves aren't random; they're the signatures of nature's smallest building blocks interacting at high energies.
Why do they curve?
A powerful magnetic field is imposed over the chamber and bends the paths of charged particles. The direction of the curve reveals whether a particle is positive or negative, and the tightness of the spiral tells us its momentum—lighter particles like electrons spiral tightly, while heavier ones sweep wide arcs.
Why do they branch?
Sometimes a high-energy particle collides with a hydrogen nucleus, creating a burst of new particles—pions, muons, electrons—that fan out from a single point called a vertex. You're watching the same interactions that helped experimentally ground the standard model of particle physics.
∇ Click to inject particles