Only proton-proton collisions in the particle accelerator?
So far I have only read about proton-proton collisions.
Why not let electrons collide with electrons? Has that been done before, and nothing happened?
What happens if:
- Electron-proton collision!
- Electron-neutron collision
- Proton-neutron collision
- Neutron-neutron collision
then you seem to have not read much.
there are: proton-proton, heavyion-sword (e.g. gold or lead), proton-swordion, proton-antiproton, electron-positron, electron-proton, and various fixed-target experiments (e.g. with myons or pions on the protons/neutrons in the target).
Where to read
wikipdedia is usually a good start point:
List of accelerators in particle physics – Wikipedia
Neutrons cannot be accelerated because they are uncharged.
Presumably, electrons are too light and therefore collisions are not energy-rich enough and therefore meanwhile?) uninteresting.
All other protons can also be collide (positive metal) ions which, if the higher mass is used, also have significantly higher energies. Lead ions as far as I know!