/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3781020
As far as detection goes

The particles may only exist for a fraction of a second, but because of their high velocity they travel far enough to collide with material in the detectors.

Pic related. Except that picture has likely been cleaned up. When large numbers of particles are collided (such as gold ions at Brookhaven Lab) there are thousands of tracks. By analyzing the trajectory of the tracks (which are affected by electromagnetic fields) charge, mass, and spin can be inferred and particles can be identified.

The particles are collimated in a beam via magnets. It starts off with a large radius beam, and the magnets gradually accelerate and narrow the beam width.