I heard that the LHC smashes two protons together to research the universe.
But how does it create the protons for collision? If we strip off the electrons won't there be neutrons along with protons?
A "Duoplasmatron source" is used by the LHC, it ionises atoms into negative or positive ions but how is the proton separated from that?
Best Answer
See this article on the LHC proton source.
Hydrogen gas is ionised using a strong electric field, and the resulting protons are accelerated and focused then injected into a linear accelerator.