system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What will double the energy do for the Large Hadron Collider?

With the LHC due to come back online with almost double the energy being used in collisions, what are they hoping to achieve if the particles are already moving at near light speed? Does this allow for more or bigger particles or groups? Maybe it will allow for longer reactions?

My ignorance makes for annoying curiosity, sorry.
gpt
> what are they hoping to achieve if the particles are already moving at near light speed?

Just to clarify, the actual speed of the particles is mostly irrelevant at this stage. Everything is basically going at the speed of light already, what's interesting is their energy. A particle's speed is capped at the speed of light but it's energy can keep getting bigger possibly forever (at least to the plank scale).

The energy of the particles in a particle accelerator determines the likely hood of producing specific things. By increasing the energy you increase the likelihood of seeing something new that wasn't seen at lower energies. You also increase the number of times you produce things we've already seen, allowing us to measure their properties more precisely by getting better statistics.