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Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

LHC restart: 'We want to break physics'
By Jonathan Webb Science reporter, BBC News

As the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) gears up for its revamped second run, hurling particles together with more energy than ever before, physicists there are impatient. They want this next round of collisions to shake their discipline to its core...

In a sense, one of the shiniest new items in the LHC's armoury for Run Two is the Higgs boson. Now that its existence is confirmed and quantified, it can inform the next round of detection and analysis.
"It's a new door - a new tool that we can use to probe what is beyond the Standard Model," says Dr Andre David, one of the research team working on the CMS experiment.

Dr David is driving me from the CMS site, in France, back down the valley between the Jura Mountains and Lake Geneva to the main Cern headquarters. This main site, adjacent to the Atlas experiment, sits on the southern side of the LHC's great circle and straddles the Swiss border.
He emphasises that the Higgs is much more than the final item on the Standard Model checklist; there is a great deal still to find out about it. "It's like a new wrench that we still have to work out exactly where to fit."


Prof Shears agrees: "We've only had about a thousand or two of these new particles, to try and understand their nature.
"And although it looks like the Higgs boson that we expect from our theory, there's still a chance that it might have partners that would then tell us that we're not looking at our normal theory at all. We're looking at something deeper and more exotic."

That is the central impatience that is itching all the physicists here: they want to find something that falls completely outside what they expect or understand.
"The data so far has confirmed that our theory is really really good, which is frustrating because we know it's not!" Prof Shears says. "We know it can't explain a lot of the Universe. :mad:
"So instead of trying to test the truth of this theory, what we really want to do now is break it - to show where it stops reflecting reality. That's the only way we're going to make progress."

In the canteen at Cern headquarters I meet Dr Steven Goldfarb, a physicist and software developer on the Atlas team. His sentiments are similar.
"We have a fantastic model - that we hate," he chuckles.
"It has stood up to precision measurements for 50 years. We get more and more precise, and it stands up and stands up. But we hate it, because it doesn't explain the universe." :p

etc...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31162725

Long article, well into 'Theories of Everything' territory.
 
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Our own Escet was CMS shift leader at CERN for the Run 2 beam splash. :cool:

While I am suitably impressed, I'm not sure what this means and have asked him. ;)

He has some cool photos on his Facebook page though, and the physics banter is up to standard:

Friend: "Is this a dagger I see before me? No, it's a shit ton of beam splash"
Escet: "Is this a dagger I see before me?"
"Yes, it is indeed the Hermitian conjugate of the operator a."
Escet: "It's known as the proctology operator."
"Why is that?"
"It measures the a-ness of an object."

*groan*

Here he is with the actual event on the screen behind him. I think everyone at CERN has a similar Facebook profile picture today!

Escet splash.jpg
 
:D Brilliant!

I asked Escet about the beam splash and he told me, The LHC sends a low energy beam around the ring and it hits a fixed target. We see the resulting energy "splash" into the detector.

So now you know as much as I do. ;)
 
:D Brilliant!

I asked Escet about the beam splash and he told me, The LHC sends a low energy beam around the ring and it hits a fixed target. We see the resulting energy "splash" into the detector.

So now you know as much as I do. ;)

When are they making another Zombie film?

Best PR ever!
 
Will they eventually find the "Lucifer Particle"?
 

I found out a while ago, during casual conversation, that our Escet wrote the collaboration email for that event, informing other institutions of the anomalous findings.

He had to word it very carefully in case someone dropped dead from the shock! :eek:

So he actually broke the news first, before the media were told. ;)
 
I found out a while ago, during casual conversation, that our Escet wrote the collaboration email for that event, informing other institutions of the anomalous findings.

He had to word it very carefully in case someone dropped dead from the shock! :eek:

So he actually broke the news first, before the media were told. ;)

But did the email arrive before it was sent?
 
Large Hadron Collider scientists discover new particles: pentaquarks

Latest news from the LHC:

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva have discovered a previously unseen class of particles that demonstrate there is a new state of matter.

Researchers working on the collider’s LHCb detector spotted signals that are produced when five subatomic particles called quarks combine together to form pentaquarks.

“It is an important result,” said Sheldon Stone, professor of physics at Syracuse University in New York. “It shows that there is a new state of matter. Although pentaquark states were thought possible from the dawn of the quark model, the theory that explains the structure of baryons like the proton, they had never been seen before.”

The discovery was made from data collected before the Large Hadron Collider switched on again earlier this year after a planned upgrade which allowed it to run at higher energy.

More details here
 
“It is an important result,” said Sheldon Stone

Thought this was a joke until I checked the profile.

Also, that Sheldon is a theoretical physicist and rather disdains anything as practical as particle physics. Nearly as bad as engineering! :D

Anyway, I'll ask our very own Snailet of Physics about this.

He is currently feasting on the giant custard and Bourbon creams I took him at the weekend so he'll be in a good mood.
 
Anyway, I'll ask our very own Snailet of Physics about this.

If you could let me have a report on my desk in the morning as to the implications of this new state of matter it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Yes! Inquiring minds need to know!
 
The Large "Hardon" Collider is about to be used for a new experiment.

More text at link...

Scientists at Large Hadron Collider hope to make contact with PARALLEL UNIVERSE in days
SCIENTISTS conducting a mindbending experiment at the Large Hadron Collider next week hope to connect with a PARALLEL UNIVERSE outside of our own.
By Paul Baldwin
PUBLISHED: 00:49, Sat, Oct 17, 2015 | UPDATED: 13:26, Sat, Oct 17, 2015


Large-Hadron-Collider-LHC-565315.jpg
Getty

Collision course: Large Hadron Collider could discover parallel universe
The staggeringly complex LHC ‘atom smasher’ at the CERN centre in Geneva, Switzerland, will be fired up to its highest energy levels ever in a bid to detect - or even create - miniature black holes.

If successful a completely new universe will be revealed – rewriting not only the physics books but the philosophy books too.

It is even possible that gravity from our own universe may ‘leak’ into this parallel universe, scientists at the LHC say.

The experiment is sure to inflame alarmist critics of the LHC, many of whom initially warned the high energy particle collider would spell the end of our universe with the creation a black hole of its own.

But so far Geneva remains intact and comfortably outside the event horizon.

Indeed the LHC has been spectacularly successful. First scientists proved the existence of the elusive Higgs boson ‘God particle’ - a key building block of the universe - and it is seemingly well on the way to nailing ‘dark matter’ - a previously undetectable theoretical possibility that is now thought to make up the majority of matter in the universe.

Etc.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...o-make-contact-with-PARALLEL-UNIVERSE-in-days

A scientific diagram:
lhc.gif
 
I can't help but wonder if they are being sponsored by the people doing the Flash tv-series. To begin with Flash got hos powers from an explosion caused by a particle accelerator. Later a black hole was created due to the same particle accelerator. Then in last weeks episode we find out it caused an opening to a parallell universe.
 
This story probably belongs in UFOlogy, Conspiracy Theory or People Who Are Slightly Off Their Rocker...

'I stopped Large Hadron Collider destroying human race', claims ex-politican

Simon Parkes, who until April was a Labour town councillor for Whitby in North Yorkshire, claimed "psychopathic" members of a group of world leaders, known as the Illuminati by conspiracy theorists, were hellbent on using the huge atom colliding machine to open a vortex that would allow them complete control over all of us.

The LHC, run by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) at Geneva on the French-Swiss border, is the world’s largest and most powerful machine and used to collide particles at close to the speed of light in a bid to discover more about physics and the possibility of parallel universes.

The curious machine developed across a 16-mile ring of superconducting magnets has had critics before amid claims it could inadvertently create a black hole that may swallow up the world, but Mr Parkes' story is one of the strangest to date.

Mr Parkes, who has previously been a borough councillor in London and lectured at the Natural History Museum, made the extraordinary claims before hundreds of people during a paranoia-inducing speech at a UFO convention in a country manor house.

Conspiracy theorists claim the Illuminati is a worldwide secret organisation which really runs the world above the global leaders we see in office.

He claimed to have foiled a sinister plot by the "elite group" just weeks ago in August to use the LHC to open an evil portal that would allow them to become more powerful.


http://www.express.co.uk/news/scien...der-destroying-human-race-claims-ex-politican (WARNING : Daily Express link)
 
This story probably belongs in UFOlogy, Conspiracy Theory or People Who Are Slightly Off Their Rocker...

'I stopped Large Hadron Collider destroying human race', claims ex-politican
Wow. This Parkes chap ticks so many boxes. I skim-sampled the 2hr video, and am thinking he's really a bit of an Icke-alike

 
Wow. This Parkes chap ticks so many boxes. I skim-sampled the 2hr video, and am thinking he's really a bit of an Icke-alike
Yes, he and Project Avalon deserve a separate thread (or do we already have one?)
 
Anyway, I'll ask our very own Snailet of Physics about this.

Any feedback from your kinderling on work-related wondering? I do so much prefer direct testimony from real people, especially family. It reduce my normally-infinite skepticism, relative to the full-fat mediafiction feature feeds we call news channels.

What's his take on the 'baugette incident'? Did it really happen?
escargot1 said:
He is currently feasting on the giant custard and Bourbon creams I took him at the weekend so he'll be in a good mood.
What? This make CERN sound like HMP Slade (North American readers may optionally substitute Alabama State Penitentiary for this obscure cultural reference).

Does he miss the BBC? That's the British Biscuit Companies....we may not have any real manufacturing or industrial capabilities left, but at least we've still got the snack sector sorted. Tell him that the 'Channel' Tunnel could be re-lined with super-conducting toroids via EPSRC grants, and then we can have it tangentially-extended across EUrope all the way to the LHC.

We call it the Biscuit International Sub-Continental Underground Internet Tranportation System (which as a self-recursive acronym should automatically attract more funding, as is normally the case).

A builder's skip filled with Custard Creams and Bourbons (plus of course chocolate digestives and loose Hobnobs) would be emptied into the Folkstone end every few seconds, and (this is the clever bit) appear instantaneously at Geneva, so as to ensure mainland EUrope has proper BBC coverage.

In fact, the biscuits may actually materialise over there before they're sent.....which really would take the biscuit (well, you know what I mean).

ps and Tunnock's Caramel Wafers....we mustn't forget them. In fact there may already be legislation in place....and if there isn't, there should be. They're devilishly moreish, although I'm usuaĺly keeping it to under 40 a day now.
 
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I did suggest that Escet pose the regular/large biscuits as a before/after collider event but he hasn't yet. Probably ate them all.
 
as a before/after collider event
Interesting. So, do they ever micro-miniaturise a complete spaceship and crew, for the vague purpose of intravenous injection? I should stick to biscuits....safer (well, they can have their moments)
bourbon-biscuit-close.jpg
 
Escet recently popped over to Blighty to do a bit of teaching. On way back to his Eurostar connection he jumped off the train and we had a spot of lunch and a chat.

He told me that when the Beam was set up, it was his job to tell the technicians to start it. He was chosen because he is British. The technicians like to be asked politely, so if an Italian physicist rings them and says 'Hello? OK, turna da beam on in-a fifteen minutes! click' they get all offended.

Whereas Escet calls and says 'Hello, beam technicians? How lovely to talk to you again! How are you, old chap? Good, good! Busy, isn't it! What I was wondering was, if you don't mind, it'd be awfully nice if you'd like to start up the beam, perhaps in about an quarter of an hour, if that's convenient for you?
Oh, that's marvelous, thank you so much!'

He really Brits it up and the technicians love it. :D

Everyone can hear, so they're screaming with laughter at him. Gets the job done though, what! o_O

After lunch I put him back on the train and swung him a free First Class seat so he could bask in luxury and use the free wifi to monitor the Beam on his laptop. If there's a blip, it's a Discovery, and if he spots it he can claim it! :)
 
This is mainly (but not entirely) about the LHC. It has some interesting angles that not even Scarg may have seen:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b071gnr0/click-cern

A comprehensive guide to all the latest gadgets, websites, games and computer industry news.

Click goes deep underground in the tunnels of Cern to see how this colossal physics experiment could answer fundamental questions about our universe.
 
Heh, we always watch Click and have caught all the LHC episodes. The recent one where the reporter became tearful with awe was particularly good. :)
 
Excitement grows as Large Hadron Collider hints at new particle
Blips in data are common, but scientists are hoping that brief flashes of light spotted inside the LHC might be the first glimpse of a new era of physics
Ian Sample Science editor
Friday 18 March 2016 12.04 GMT

When hundreds of physicists gathered this week in La Thuile, an old mining town in the heart of the Italian alps, one short and simple question hung in the cool, crisp air: is it real?
The source of their fascination, and no little excitement, was light. Not the sunlight that made the snow glint on the mountains in the Aosta valley, but light inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) across the border near Geneva. The machine had detected more photons than expected as it smashed particles beneath the quiet Swiss countryside. The brief flashes of light might be the first glimpse of the next big discovery.

Or it may be nothing. The LHC hunts for signs of new physics by slamming particles together and capturing the debris in giant detectors. It is a world where quantum weirdness rules, and random blips in the data are a daily nuisance. But what if this latest bump in the data has solid foundations? Enter a new era of physics, and a world of hitherto unknown particles and forces.

Speculation is rife. Some physicists suspect that the blip may be a heavier cousin of the Higgs boson, the mass-giving particle the LHC discovered in 2012. Alternatively, it could mean the Higgs itself is made up of a bunch of smaller particles. Others wonder if the bump might be a graviton, a particle that transmits gravity. That would be truly remarkable: so far, gravity has proved impossible to reconcile with theories of other particles and forces.

“If this thing turns out to be real, it’s a ten on the Richter scale of particle physics,” says John Ellis, professor of physics at King’s College London, and the former head of theory at Cern. “One’s excitometer gets totally broken.” That 'if', though, is a big one.
“I would love for it to persist, but I’ve seen so many effects come and go that I have to say in my heart of hearts I’m not very optimistic. It would be such a fantastic discovery if it were true, precisely because it’s unexpected, and because it would be the tip of an iceberg of new forms of matter,” Ellis says.

His caution is echoed by Frank Wilczek, who won the Nobel prize for physics in 2004. “It’s not what the doctor ordered to solve any specific problem that I know about. But I think there may be an attractive way to accommodate it, if it exists,” he says. Wilczek likes the sound of a particle made from new types of quarks (the constituents of protons and neutrons), bound together by a new super-strong force. “That said, I’m afraid the most likely resolution is that what’s been seen is a statistical fluke.”

The first hints of the intriguing blips emerged in December, when researchers on the LHC’s two main detectors, Atlas and CMS, revealed that they had both seen small bumps in their data. They showed that collisions of protons inside the huge detectors had produced slightly more high-energy photons, or particles of light, than our best theories predict.

Normally, such bumps barely draw comment. Too many come and go, never to be seen again. But what made physicists raise a collective eyebrow was that two teams, working independently, in competition, and on completely different detectors, had bumps in the same place: the energies of the extra photons matched. Both hinted at a hefty new particle 15 times more massive than an iron atom. If real, the mystery particle had burst into existence and promptly vanished, releasing a burst of light as a death throe.

etc...

https://www.theguardian.com/science...ge-hadron-colliders-possible-new-particle-lhc
 

Cern laboratory made famous for work on Large Hadron Collider embroiled in homophobia row


LGBT Cern group members claim the abuse has been ongoing for years, with posters defaced with words such as “Schwein” (German for pig) and Old Testament biblical quotations describing sexual relations between men as an “abomination” for which they should be “put to death”.


I heard about this from our Source a long time ago. You'd think physicists'd be a bit more open-minded, or at least tolerant.
 
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