CERN Scientists Achieve ‘Gold Creation’ in Latest Particle Collision Experiment

 CERN scientists have briefly turned lead into gold by smashing nuclei at near-light speed, offering new insights into nuclear physics rather than alchemical riches.

At a Glance

• Scientists at CERN have successfully created gold nuclei by colliding lead atoms at high speeds using electromagnetic dissociation.
• These collisions cause photons to eject protons and neutrons from lead nuclei, occasionally forming gold nuclei when exactly three protons are lost.
• The ALICE detector measured gold production at a peak rate of 89,000 nuclei per second, though only 29 picograms of gold were produced during three years of LHC operations.
• While the quantity is too small for practical applications, the experiment offers valuable insights into nuclear reactions and particle collision behavior.
• This achievement marks a scientific milestone but confirms that medieval alchemy’s dream of wealth through transmutation remains unattainable in practical terms.

Scientists at CERN‘s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have achieved a groundbreaking experiment that brings us closer to the dream of turning lead into gold—a concept once pursued by medieval alchemists. This latest study, published in Physical Review C, reveals how gold is produced during high-energy collisions between lead nuclei, specifically through electromagnetic dissociation. In this process, photon interactions with the lead nuclei cause them to lose protons and neutrons, creating gold nuclei, among other elements.

In the LHC, lead nuclei are accelerated to nearly the speed of light and collide at incredibly high energies. The electromagnetic field produced by these fast-moving lead nuclei causes photons to interact with the nuclei, which can induce small-scale reactions like the ejection of protons and neutrons. This process allows the creation of gold, but it only happens when three protons are removed from a lead nucleus. The newly created gold nuclei are highly energetic and exist for a fraction of a second before disintegrating into smaller particles.

Using the ALICE detector’s zero-degree calorimeters, the researchers measured the emission of protons and neutrons from these interactions, detecting the production of gold nuclei at a maximum rate of 89,000 per second. While this is impressive, it is far from making gold in the quantities needed for practical use. In fact, during the LHC’s Run 2 from 2015 to 2018, only about 86 billion gold nuclei were created, which amounted to just 29 picograms—an incredibly tiny amount, much less than what would be needed for jewelry.

Despite the small amount of gold produced, the experiment has provided significant insights into nuclear processes and the physics of particle collisions. These findings help improve our understanding of electromagnetic dissociation, which fascinates physicists and helps refine models used to predict beam behavior and energy loss in the LHC. Although turning lead into gold has been achieved, the ancient alchemists’ dream of wealth from this process remains out of reach.

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References

• CERN. (2025, May 8). ALICE detects the conversion of lead into gold at the Large Hadron Collider. Phys.Org; CERN. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-alice-conversion-gold-large-hadron.html

• Acharya, S., Agarwal, A., Aglieri Rinella, G., Aglietta, L., Agnello, M., Agrawal, N., Ahammed, Z., Ahmad, S., Ahn, S. U., Ahuja, I., Akindinov, A., Akishina, V., Al-Turany, M., Aleksandrov, D., Alessandro, B., Alfanda, H. M., Alfaro Molina, R., Ali, B., Alici, A., … ALICE Collaboration. (2025). Proton emission in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at s N N = 5.02 TeV. Physical Review C, 111(5), 054906. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.111.054906