Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
- Thread starter rynner2
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How little we know!
Brian Cox: It's the unanswered questions that make particle physics sexy
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
I would like to give a brief introduction to particle physics and what we hope to achieve with the Large Hadron Collider at The European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva.
Particle physics is the exploration of the world at its smallest. What we have found in the 100 years or so since Rutherford discovered the nucleus is that everything can be made of just four particles, or three in a sense: two quarks, called an up quark and a down quark, and an electron. So the protons and neutrons in your body are made of up and down quarks, with electrons around them – that's atomic structure.
This is an incredible simplification: we have also found another two copies of those particles which is rather strange. So there are in fact 12 fundamental particles of nature as we know at the moment. The copies appear identical. So the electron has got a partner called a "muon" and the electron has also got the "tau". They are heavier but otherwise identical. And we have no idea why those copies exist.
So why is nature built that way? Why does that pattern of 12 particles, eight of which appear to be useless, allow you to build everything in the universe? We have no idea. That's one of the big questions.
Particle physics tries to describe the forces of nature – that's the way that those particles talk to each other. There are four fundamental forces. There is gravity and the other three forces that work in the sub-atomic world: electromagnetism – fridge magnets and electricity; there is weak force which allows the sun to shine and is responsible for radioactive beta- decay; and there is the stronger nuclear force that sticks the nucleus together called "gluons".
Particle physics is the study or the search for the ultimate building blocks of the universe and, in a sense, I feel the wheels are starting to come off our picture of reality. This is why the Large Hadron Collider is being built.
There are huge and fascinating questions it will help to answer. We now know that 95 per cent of the universe is made of the something other than those 12 particles. And we have very little idea what the other 95 per cent is, which is kind of embarrassing.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 89661.html
Brian Cox: It's the unanswered questions that make particle physics sexy
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
I would like to give a brief introduction to particle physics and what we hope to achieve with the Large Hadron Collider at The European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva.
Particle physics is the exploration of the world at its smallest. What we have found in the 100 years or so since Rutherford discovered the nucleus is that everything can be made of just four particles, or three in a sense: two quarks, called an up quark and a down quark, and an electron. So the protons and neutrons in your body are made of up and down quarks, with electrons around them – that's atomic structure.
This is an incredible simplification: we have also found another two copies of those particles which is rather strange. So there are in fact 12 fundamental particles of nature as we know at the moment. The copies appear identical. So the electron has got a partner called a "muon" and the electron has also got the "tau". They are heavier but otherwise identical. And we have no idea why those copies exist.
So why is nature built that way? Why does that pattern of 12 particles, eight of which appear to be useless, allow you to build everything in the universe? We have no idea. That's one of the big questions.
Particle physics tries to describe the forces of nature – that's the way that those particles talk to each other. There are four fundamental forces. There is gravity and the other three forces that work in the sub-atomic world: electromagnetism – fridge magnets and electricity; there is weak force which allows the sun to shine and is responsible for radioactive beta- decay; and there is the stronger nuclear force that sticks the nucleus together called "gluons".
Particle physics is the study or the search for the ultimate building blocks of the universe and, in a sense, I feel the wheels are starting to come off our picture of reality. This is why the Large Hadron Collider is being built.
There are huge and fascinating questions it will help to answer. We now know that 95 per cent of the universe is made of the something other than those 12 particles. And we have very little idea what the other 95 per cent is, which is kind of embarrassing.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 89661.html
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'Big Bang' machine to be ready by summer
By John von Radowitz, Press Association
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
The £4bn "Big Bang" machine, which suffered a catastrophic malfunction soon after being switched on last September, is expected to be restarted in June.
The Large Hadron Collider suffered a catastrophic malfunction soon after being switched on amid a fanfare of publicity last September.
A faulty electrical connection led to a leak of super-cold helium causing damage estimated at £20 million.
As a result, 53 of the magnets used to accelerate sub-atomic particles around the machine's 17-mile underground tunnel have had to be brought to the surface for repair or cleaning.
Engineers have now designed fail-safe protection systems to ensure that a similar accident never happens again.
Electronic monitors will provide early warnings of hazards, and the magnet network will also be fitted with pressure-release valves to confine the damage caused by any future leak.
....
LHC project leader Lyn Evans said: "We have a lot of work to do over the coming months, but we now have the roadmap, the time and the competence necessary to be ready for physics by summer. We are currently in a scheduled annual shutdown until May, so we're hopeful that not too much time will be lost."
The total cost of repairing and refitting the machine is likely to exceed £30 million.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 28353.html
By John von Radowitz, Press Association
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
The £4bn "Big Bang" machine, which suffered a catastrophic malfunction soon after being switched on last September, is expected to be restarted in June.
The Large Hadron Collider suffered a catastrophic malfunction soon after being switched on amid a fanfare of publicity last September.
A faulty electrical connection led to a leak of super-cold helium causing damage estimated at £20 million.
As a result, 53 of the magnets used to accelerate sub-atomic particles around the machine's 17-mile underground tunnel have had to be brought to the surface for repair or cleaning.
Engineers have now designed fail-safe protection systems to ensure that a similar accident never happens again.
Electronic monitors will provide early warnings of hazards, and the magnet network will also be fitted with pressure-release valves to confine the damage caused by any future leak.
....
LHC project leader Lyn Evans said: "We have a lot of work to do over the coming months, but we now have the roadmap, the time and the competence necessary to be ready for physics by summer. We are currently in a scheduled annual shutdown until May, so we're hopeful that not too much time will be lost."
The total cost of repairing and refitting the machine is likely to exceed £30 million.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 28353.html
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rynner2 said:
Now, you know very well that it won't get started until 2012.
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- 54,631
Belfast art set to collide with quantum physics
A play about the 'god particle' will open as scientists try to find the real thing
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor The Observer, Sunday 11 January 2009
The parallel universes of quantum physics and theatre are about to collide as scientists on the French-Swiss border attempt once more to recreate the Big Bang.
With uncanny timing, an Irish play about the experiment at the Cern laboratory which is designed to explain the universe's origins will be staged while the real life drama of unlocking the cosmos' mysteries takes place 300ft under the earth on the outskirts of Geneva.
The Gentlemen's Tea Drinking Society throws four men together in a single room, one of whom is a genius scientist with a secret to reveal - he has discovered the Higgs boson or the so-called "God Particle".
One of the main purposes of the largest scientific experiment ever conducted is to find that elusive particle which physicists believe pervades all space and unites all other particles. They will try this at the Cern lab using the Large Hadron Collider which took 30 years to build, cost more than $10 billion and runs underground for 27 kilometres.
The play is the brainchild of Richard Dormer who shot to fame in Ireland, Britain and the United States a couple of years ago for his one-man portrayal of the triumphs and trials of Ulster snooker legend Alex "Hurricane" Higgins.
In a dank room adjacent to St Patrick's Catholic Church in Belfast's Donegall Street, Dormer explained that his interest in the hunt for Higgs boson was inspired by a Belfast wall mural.
"I used to cycle past a gable wall end at a pathway near the Lagan river and there was this new mural that caught my attention. It said, 'How can quantum gravity explain the origins of the universe?' It really got my mind going about the subject as I have always loved science and science fiction."
The Cern scientists initial failure to trigger a Big Bang last September has turned out to be fortuitous for Dormer. A second attempt is scheduled for early spring, when the play goes on tour.
"We don't know what they (the scientists) will find, but this play has taken reality and is just running with it and asking what if. Hopefully, this is art running in parallel with reality," Dormer said.
Asked about the lack of technological props and backdrops, the play's director Rachel O'Riordan said the production was a drama about science, not about putting scientific experiments on the stage.
"The last thing you want to do is put something so complicated on stage that it alienates an audience. Most people have an awareness about Cern. You are talking to someone who failed their maths GCSE. All this stuff about the universe makes Newton seem simple."
The experiment triggered worldwide fears that the Large Hadron Collider would cause a black hole and swallow up the world. O'Riordan added that audiences needn't fear that the play will create a tear in space or time.
Belfast born DJ David Holmes, who produced the music for Ocean's Twelve and Hunger, has written the play's soundtrack.
Given that his most famous character before now was a chain smoking, hard drinking, cocaine snorting snooker player, how does Dormer switch to playing a wheelchair-bound scientist who has cracked a key secret of the cosmos? "Actually, they are very similar, as Alex was a scientist in his own right," says Dormer. "He knew what geometry was. He thought about the positioning of objects in space. His character was also a genius."
The Gentlemen's Tea-Drinking Society holds its premiere on 4 February at the Old Museum until 14th and then goes on tour in Ireland until 10 March. It then opens at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow before moving to London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/ja ... e-big-bang
A play about the 'god particle' will open as scientists try to find the real thing
Henry McDonald, Ireland editor The Observer, Sunday 11 January 2009
The parallel universes of quantum physics and theatre are about to collide as scientists on the French-Swiss border attempt once more to recreate the Big Bang.
With uncanny timing, an Irish play about the experiment at the Cern laboratory which is designed to explain the universe's origins will be staged while the real life drama of unlocking the cosmos' mysteries takes place 300ft under the earth on the outskirts of Geneva.
The Gentlemen's Tea Drinking Society throws four men together in a single room, one of whom is a genius scientist with a secret to reveal - he has discovered the Higgs boson or the so-called "God Particle".
One of the main purposes of the largest scientific experiment ever conducted is to find that elusive particle which physicists believe pervades all space and unites all other particles. They will try this at the Cern lab using the Large Hadron Collider which took 30 years to build, cost more than $10 billion and runs underground for 27 kilometres.
The play is the brainchild of Richard Dormer who shot to fame in Ireland, Britain and the United States a couple of years ago for his one-man portrayal of the triumphs and trials of Ulster snooker legend Alex "Hurricane" Higgins.
In a dank room adjacent to St Patrick's Catholic Church in Belfast's Donegall Street, Dormer explained that his interest in the hunt for Higgs boson was inspired by a Belfast wall mural.
"I used to cycle past a gable wall end at a pathway near the Lagan river and there was this new mural that caught my attention. It said, 'How can quantum gravity explain the origins of the universe?' It really got my mind going about the subject as I have always loved science and science fiction."
The Cern scientists initial failure to trigger a Big Bang last September has turned out to be fortuitous for Dormer. A second attempt is scheduled for early spring, when the play goes on tour.
"We don't know what they (the scientists) will find, but this play has taken reality and is just running with it and asking what if. Hopefully, this is art running in parallel with reality," Dormer said.
Asked about the lack of technological props and backdrops, the play's director Rachel O'Riordan said the production was a drama about science, not about putting scientific experiments on the stage.
"The last thing you want to do is put something so complicated on stage that it alienates an audience. Most people have an awareness about Cern. You are talking to someone who failed their maths GCSE. All this stuff about the universe makes Newton seem simple."
The experiment triggered worldwide fears that the Large Hadron Collider would cause a black hole and swallow up the world. O'Riordan added that audiences needn't fear that the play will create a tear in space or time.
Belfast born DJ David Holmes, who produced the music for Ocean's Twelve and Hunger, has written the play's soundtrack.
Given that his most famous character before now was a chain smoking, hard drinking, cocaine snorting snooker player, how does Dormer switch to playing a wheelchair-bound scientist who has cracked a key secret of the cosmos? "Actually, they are very similar, as Alex was a scientist in his own right," says Dormer. "He knew what geometry was. He thought about the positioning of objects in space. His character was also a genius."
The Gentlemen's Tea-Drinking Society holds its premiere on 4 February at the Old Museum until 14th and then goes on tour in Ireland until 10 March. It then opens at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow before moving to London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/ja ... e-big-bang
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Hadron Collider relaunch delayed
The Large Hadron Collider could be switched back on in September - a year after it shut down due to a malfunction and several months later than expected.
Scientists had said they expected the £3.6bn ($5.4bn) machine to be repaired by November, but then pushed the date back to June, before the latest delay.
The LHC was built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang.
The fault occurred just nine days after it was turned on last September.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) said: "The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October."
Repairs
An investigation into the LHC's problems concluded the initial malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets.
Cern said that as a result, 53 magnet units would have to be removed from the LHC's tunnel to be cleaned or repaired.
Cern had also said new protection systems would be added as part of £14m repairs.
It blamed the shutdown on the failure of a single, badly soldered electrical connection in one of its super-cooled magnet sections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7880223.stm
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...
The Large Hadron Collider could be switched back on in September - a year after it shut down due to a malfunction and several months later than expected.
Scientists had said they expected the £3.6bn ($5.4bn) machine to be repaired by November, but then pushed the date back to June, before the latest delay.
The LHC was built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang.
The fault occurred just nine days after it was turned on last September.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) said: "The new schedule foresees first beams in the LHC at the end of September this year, with collisions following in late October."
Repairs
An investigation into the LHC's problems concluded the initial malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets.
Cern said that as a result, 53 magnet units would have to be removed from the LHC's tunnel to be cleaned or repaired.
Cern had also said new protection systems would be added as part of £14m repairs.
It blamed the shutdown on the failure of a single, badly soldered electrical connection in one of its super-cooled magnet sections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7880223.stm
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost...
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- 54,631
Race for 'God particle' heats up
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News, Chicago
Cern is losing ground rapidly in the race to discover the elusive Higgs boson, its American rival claims.
Fermilab say the odds of their Tevatron accelerator finding it first are now 50-50 at worst, and up to 96% at best.
Cern's Lyn Evans admitted the accident which will halt the $7bn Large Hadron Collider until September may cost them one of the biggest prizes in physics.
The two rivals are trying to identify the "God Particle" - one of the fundamental particles of matter.
Finding the Higgs boson, whose existence has been predicted by theoretical physicists, might help to explain why matter has mass.
The chiefs of the world's most powerful atom smashers squared up at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago.
Grand prix
Identifying the "God Particle" has been a target for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) ever since the LHC was first conceived in the early 1980s.
At the launch of the LHC near Geneva in September, some scientists predicted the Higgs would be revealed as soon as summer 2009.
But just one week later, an accident occurred which will halt experiments at the accelerator for at least 12 months.
Fermilab has taken advantage, cranking up the intensity of research at their Tevatron accelerator in Illinois.
Director Pier Oddone presented the Tevatron's latest data at the AAAS meeting.
"We now have a very, very good chance that we will see hints of the Higgs before the LHC will," said his Fermilab colleague, Dr Dmitri Denisov.
"I think we have the next two years to find it, based on the start date Lyn Evans has told us.
"And by that time we expect to say something very strong.
"The probability of our discovering the Higgs is very good - 90% if it is in the high mass range.
"And the chances are even higher - 96% - if its mass is around 170GV.
"In that case we would be talking about seeing hints of the Higgs by this summer."
The smaller the mass of the particle, the more difficult and time consuming it will be for Fermilab to detect.
But even at the lowest end of the range, the chances are "50% or above", according to Mr Oddone.
"Tevatron is running extremely well. We are in the peak of our shape," added Dr Denisov.
"We are increasing data set very quickly. And they are feeling the heat.
"Instead of having their usual Christmas break - of two months - they are planning to run all the way through.
"It's a race. Whoever is first is first."
Fermilab estimates that the Tevatron has already picked out about eight collision events which may be hints of the Higgs.
But until the number crunching is done, it is not possible to distinguish these from "background noise".
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr Denisov was his counterpart Professor Lyn Evans, LHC project leader.
"The race is on," he told BBC News.
"The Tevatron is working better than I ever imagined it could. They are accumulating data like mad.
"The setback with the LHC has given them an extra time window. And they certainly will make the most of it.
"If they do find the Higgs, good luck to them. But I think it's unlikely they will find it before LHC comes on line. They may well be in a position to get a hint of the Higgs but I don't think they'll be in a position to discover it.
"And of course, if it's not in the mass range they think it is, they have no chance of discovering it at all. Pier Oddone put the odds at 50-50 but I think it's less than that.
"In one year, we will be competitive. After that, we will swamp them."
The competition was healthy for "both parties". Though missing out on the Higgs would be a "sour consolation".
"The trouble is, the LHC has been sold on being built for the Higgs," said Prof Evans.
"But don't forget, there is also a whole spectrum of physics to be investigated at the LHC which the Tevatron can never do."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7893689.stm
By James Morgan
Science reporter, BBC News, Chicago
Cern is losing ground rapidly in the race to discover the elusive Higgs boson, its American rival claims.
Fermilab say the odds of their Tevatron accelerator finding it first are now 50-50 at worst, and up to 96% at best.
Cern's Lyn Evans admitted the accident which will halt the $7bn Large Hadron Collider until September may cost them one of the biggest prizes in physics.
The two rivals are trying to identify the "God Particle" - one of the fundamental particles of matter.
Finding the Higgs boson, whose existence has been predicted by theoretical physicists, might help to explain why matter has mass.
The chiefs of the world's most powerful atom smashers squared up at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago.
Grand prix
Identifying the "God Particle" has been a target for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) ever since the LHC was first conceived in the early 1980s.
At the launch of the LHC near Geneva in September, some scientists predicted the Higgs would be revealed as soon as summer 2009.
But just one week later, an accident occurred which will halt experiments at the accelerator for at least 12 months.
Fermilab has taken advantage, cranking up the intensity of research at their Tevatron accelerator in Illinois.
Director Pier Oddone presented the Tevatron's latest data at the AAAS meeting.
"We now have a very, very good chance that we will see hints of the Higgs before the LHC will," said his Fermilab colleague, Dr Dmitri Denisov.
"I think we have the next two years to find it, based on the start date Lyn Evans has told us.
"And by that time we expect to say something very strong.
"The probability of our discovering the Higgs is very good - 90% if it is in the high mass range.
"And the chances are even higher - 96% - if its mass is around 170GV.
"In that case we would be talking about seeing hints of the Higgs by this summer."
The smaller the mass of the particle, the more difficult and time consuming it will be for Fermilab to detect.
But even at the lowest end of the range, the chances are "50% or above", according to Mr Oddone.
"Tevatron is running extremely well. We are in the peak of our shape," added Dr Denisov.
"We are increasing data set very quickly. And they are feeling the heat.
"Instead of having their usual Christmas break - of two months - they are planning to run all the way through.
"It's a race. Whoever is first is first."
Fermilab estimates that the Tevatron has already picked out about eight collision events which may be hints of the Higgs.
But until the number crunching is done, it is not possible to distinguish these from "background noise".
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Dr Denisov was his counterpart Professor Lyn Evans, LHC project leader.
"The race is on," he told BBC News.
"The Tevatron is working better than I ever imagined it could. They are accumulating data like mad.
"The setback with the LHC has given them an extra time window. And they certainly will make the most of it.
"If they do find the Higgs, good luck to them. But I think it's unlikely they will find it before LHC comes on line. They may well be in a position to get a hint of the Higgs but I don't think they'll be in a position to discover it.
"And of course, if it's not in the mass range they think it is, they have no chance of discovering it at all. Pier Oddone put the odds at 50-50 but I think it's less than that.
"In one year, we will be competitive. After that, we will swamp them."
The competition was healthy for "both parties". Though missing out on the Higgs would be a "sour consolation".
"The trouble is, the LHC has been sold on being built for the Higgs," said Prof Evans.
"But don't forget, there is also a whole spectrum of physics to be investigated at the LHC which the Tevatron can never do."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7893689.stm
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Large Hadron Collider will restart at half-power
Mark Henderson,Science Editor
The Large Hadron Collider will run at only half its maximum energy when it restarts in November after a serious fault forced it to be shut down for more than a year.
Officials from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva announced last night that it will be 2011 before the world’s most powerful atom-smasher reaches its full capacity.
While the £4 billion “big bang machine” should eventually be capable of running at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts (TeV), it will operate initially at just 3.5 TeV when it starts smashing protons together in mid-November. The first science results are expected a few weeks later.
It will move up to higher energies only once engineers are confident that it is safe to do so, and it will reach maximum power only after it is shut down for a refit in the winter of 2010-11.
The lower-energy first run will still allow scientists to use the collider to search for the Higgs boson — the elusive “God particle” that is proposed to give matter its mass — and to investigate other new aspects of physics.
It will take longer to collect the data needed for these experiments, however, increasing the chances that evidence for the Higgs boson might first be found by the less powerful Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in the United States.
“We’ve selected 3.5 TeV to start because it allows the LHC operators to gain experience of running the machine safely while opening up a new discovery region for the experiments,” said Rolf Heuer, CERN’s director-general, said.
James Gillies, CERN’s head of communications, said an energy of 3.5 TeV would allow operators to gain experience with the machine at lower energies, without seriously compromising the LHC’s ability to investigate new physics.
etc...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 742719.ece
Mark Henderson,Science Editor
The Large Hadron Collider will run at only half its maximum energy when it restarts in November after a serious fault forced it to be shut down for more than a year.
Officials from the CERN particle physics laboratory in Geneva announced last night that it will be 2011 before the world’s most powerful atom-smasher reaches its full capacity.
While the £4 billion “big bang machine” should eventually be capable of running at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts (TeV), it will operate initially at just 3.5 TeV when it starts smashing protons together in mid-November. The first science results are expected a few weeks later.
It will move up to higher energies only once engineers are confident that it is safe to do so, and it will reach maximum power only after it is shut down for a refit in the winter of 2010-11.
The lower-energy first run will still allow scientists to use the collider to search for the Higgs boson — the elusive “God particle” that is proposed to give matter its mass — and to investigate other new aspects of physics.
It will take longer to collect the data needed for these experiments, however, increasing the chances that evidence for the Higgs boson might first be found by the less powerful Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab in the United States.
“We’ve selected 3.5 TeV to start because it allows the LHC operators to gain experience of running the machine safely while opening up a new discovery region for the experiments,” said Rolf Heuer, CERN’s director-general, said.
James Gillies, CERN’s head of communications, said an energy of 3.5 TeV would allow operators to gain experience with the machine at lower energies, without seriously compromising the LHC’s ability to investigate new physics.
etc...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 742719.ece
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Budget Brits take on Cern in hunt for secrets of universe
Jonathan Leake
A small group of British physicists, working a mile underground in a north England potash mine, are taking on the world’s biggest and most expensive particle accelerator in a race to find the universe’s most elusive substance.
Working with a tiny budget, the team of British researchers have built a machine in a mine tunnel which they hope will enable them to detect dark matter — the substance thought to make up 95% of the mass in the universe. It pits them against Cern, a multi-billion-pound project in Switzerland.
The British machine, called Zeplin-III, will be switched on in a few weeks’ time at Boulby in Cleveland — just as Cern is also firing up its mighty Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to seek out similar sub-atomic particles. Whoever discovers the elusive dark matter is likely to win a Nobel prize.
Sean Paling, a spokesman for the Boulby team, said: “This is one of the great prizes of modern physics. Dark matter is thought to be all around us, but it is invisible, passes straight through ordinary matter, and so far has been impossible to detect. Whoever finds it will be helping solve a great mystery about how the universe works.”
The Boulby Underground Laboratory is sited in Britain’s deepest mine, a facility provided by Cleveland Potash, the owner. There, shielded from cosmic rays, the team has built laboratories for instruments it hopes will be able to detect the elusive particles thought to make up dark matter. These are also known as Wimps, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.
The idea is to create instruments that will emit a signal when hit by such particles — and then measure the signal to work out the particles’ properties. This approach is different from that at Cern, whose LHC will smash particles called protons together. In theory this should generate particles of dark matter that detectors will be able to observe.
Cern and the Boulby Underground Laboratory will both be powering up their new machines in November. What is more, both teams expect to need several months to a year for their search.
Superficially, Boulby’s low-budget effort is easily surpassed by Cern. The Zeplin-III machine cost £4m compared with the £2 billion spent on the LHC. However, the LHC has so far proved unreliable, with the first attempt at starting it last year ending in an explosion. This may have given the Boulby team, which has already carried out successful test-runs, the chance to take the lead.
However, Jim Virdee, professor of physics at Imperial College, London, said he did not like the idea of a race: “What is important here is the science.” The idea that dark matter might exist arose from astronomers’ observations that the amount of gravity in the universe is much greater than could be explained by the visible matter. In theory stars should fly off from galaxies — unless there is some extra matter holding them together.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 850906.ece
Jonathan Leake
A small group of British physicists, working a mile underground in a north England potash mine, are taking on the world’s biggest and most expensive particle accelerator in a race to find the universe’s most elusive substance.
Working with a tiny budget, the team of British researchers have built a machine in a mine tunnel which they hope will enable them to detect dark matter — the substance thought to make up 95% of the mass in the universe. It pits them against Cern, a multi-billion-pound project in Switzerland.
The British machine, called Zeplin-III, will be switched on in a few weeks’ time at Boulby in Cleveland — just as Cern is also firing up its mighty Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to seek out similar sub-atomic particles. Whoever discovers the elusive dark matter is likely to win a Nobel prize.
Sean Paling, a spokesman for the Boulby team, said: “This is one of the great prizes of modern physics. Dark matter is thought to be all around us, but it is invisible, passes straight through ordinary matter, and so far has been impossible to detect. Whoever finds it will be helping solve a great mystery about how the universe works.”
The Boulby Underground Laboratory is sited in Britain’s deepest mine, a facility provided by Cleveland Potash, the owner. There, shielded from cosmic rays, the team has built laboratories for instruments it hopes will be able to detect the elusive particles thought to make up dark matter. These are also known as Wimps, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.
The idea is to create instruments that will emit a signal when hit by such particles — and then measure the signal to work out the particles’ properties. This approach is different from that at Cern, whose LHC will smash particles called protons together. In theory this should generate particles of dark matter that detectors will be able to observe.
Cern and the Boulby Underground Laboratory will both be powering up their new machines in November. What is more, both teams expect to need several months to a year for their search.
Superficially, Boulby’s low-budget effort is easily surpassed by Cern. The Zeplin-III machine cost £4m compared with the £2 billion spent on the LHC. However, the LHC has so far proved unreliable, with the first attempt at starting it last year ending in an explosion. This may have given the Boulby team, which has already carried out successful test-runs, the chance to take the lead.
However, Jim Virdee, professor of physics at Imperial College, London, said he did not like the idea of a race: “What is important here is the science.” The idea that dark matter might exist arose from astronomers’ observations that the amount of gravity in the universe is much greater than could be explained by the visible matter. In theory stars should fly off from galaxies — unless there is some extra matter holding them together.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 850906.ece
Most of the above is .....?
No your not going to blow up the universe. It is far to self concious. Go back and restart from the 1850's with an open mind. No relativity, different quantum theory. How many dimensions? And of course use Maxwells ORIGINAL theory for a start. Dont need colliders etc. Save the money just give it to people to save the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop F*Cking around and do something usefull.
No your not going to blow up the universe. It is far to self concious. Go back and restart from the 1850's with an open mind. No relativity, different quantum theory. How many dimensions? And of course use Maxwells ORIGINAL theory for a start. Dont need colliders etc. Save the money just give it to people to save the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop F*Cking around and do something usefull.
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How is you gonna save da world with 3 billion euros, like? It cost hundreds of billions just to shore up the flailing economy of a crappy little island off the cost of France recently, I seem to recall.
I'd have thought a 'self conscious' universe would be pretty into being torn apart by super-powerful physics experiments anyway, but I suppose we could just drop science all together and give it a bit of a hug.
I'd have thought a 'self conscious' universe would be pretty into being torn apart by super-powerful physics experiments anyway, but I suppose we could just drop science all together and give it a bit of a hug.
Anome
Bibliomancer
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And, by all means, throw out the two most rigorously tested theories of modern physics. (Just because they don't seem to be compatible doesn't mean they aren't both right.)
I don't know, I guess I'm just one of those annoying curious types who wants to see what the LHC will find.
I don't know, I guess I'm just one of those annoying curious types who wants to see what the LHC will find.
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Our 'super-powerful physics experiments' are only a fraction as powerful as the things that the universe does to itself, in black holes and supernovae, etc._Lizard23_ said:
But hugs are nice - except that you'd need v-e-r-y long arms....
ramonmercado
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Yipppeee! The LHC is going to gove us a Warp Drive! (Maybe.)
Surely the most bizarre LHC story yet....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/space/13lhc.html?8dpc
So if the jinx were 'proved' would the headline say "LHC reveals existence of Cosmic Joker"??? :shock:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/science/space/13lhc.html?8dpc
So if the jinx were 'proved' would the headline say "LHC reveals existence of Cosmic Joker"??? :shock:
I have no idea why but the media seems fixated on the Higgs Boson, its not the only candidate for the source of mass which the LHC is going to be looking for.
There are other equally valid possible mechanisms for mass such as Top Quark Condensate
There are other equally valid possible mechanisms for mass such as Top Quark Condensate
Its actualy quite interesting, the idea is that all fundamental particles are massless and the Higgs' boson is a type of all invasive field of completely non-existant gloopyness which fills the entire universe, and when the massless particles interact with the non-existant gloopyness then the particles gain some mass.Sort of, top quark condensate is more complex and almost impossible to understand unless you have spent three lifetimes studying hypermathematics.
What always puzzles me about all this stuff is that the maths required to understand the ideas about particle physics is horrendous and getting more so all the time and it kind of makes me think that we are missing something pretty fundamental, nature simply does all this stuff, it just happens there is no ultimate super computer working out what happens next in nature it just gets on with it so what are we missing?
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KarlD said:
Could well be so. Nevertheless, some pretty interesting mathematics lead up to E=MCsquared (couldn't do the superscript).
KarlD said:
If you read these boards long enough, you do start getting the feeling that something is at least listening.
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Long article, worth a read:
Bill Bryson's Notes from a Large Hadron Collider
The bestselling author visits CERN and meets the scientists who are hoping to unlock the secrets of the Universe
In the event that it fell to you to identify the most exciting place on the planet, the likelihood is small, I imagine, that you would pack a bag and travel at once to Switzerland. Still less, I dare say, would you turn your back on Geneva and head out past its western suburbs and into the pleasant but uneventful countryside beyond. There, in a broad valley shared with France, stands a collection of buildings that look like the leftovers from a 1960s Festival of Bad Design.
This is it. You have found it. This is CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Over the next few days the people who run the place will cautiously restart the immensely large machine (almost 27 kilometres around) known as the Large Hadron Collider and begin swooshing particles around it in a way that will, when it is fully humming, recreate conditions as they were in the Universe one millionth of a millionth of a second after the beginning of the big bang.
etc...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 899505.ece
Bill Bryson's Notes from a Large Hadron Collider
The bestselling author visits CERN and meets the scientists who are hoping to unlock the secrets of the Universe
In the event that it fell to you to identify the most exciting place on the planet, the likelihood is small, I imagine, that you would pack a bag and travel at once to Switzerland. Still less, I dare say, would you turn your back on Geneva and head out past its western suburbs and into the pleasant but uneventful countryside beyond. There, in a broad valley shared with France, stands a collection of buildings that look like the leftovers from a 1960s Festival of Bad Design.
This is it. You have found it. This is CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research. Over the next few days the people who run the place will cautiously restart the immensely large machine (almost 27 kilometres around) known as the Large Hadron Collider and begin swooshing particles around it in a way that will, when it is fully humming, recreate conditions as they were in the Universe one millionth of a millionth of a second after the beginning of the big bang.
etc...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/s ... 899505.ece
The LHC is nearly brought down, because a bird dropped a piece of bread into the machinery. You´d think they would buy a cover for the outside parts of the machine.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/05/lhc_bread_bomb_dump_incident/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/05/lhc_bread_bomb_dump_incident/
Fluttermoth
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escargot1 said:My son's been offered a job processing CERN data.
Huh; I bet it will be really dull; looking at page after page of computer print outs in some pokey office...
(I'm only saying that 'cos I'm really, really jealous
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Fluttermoth said:escargot1 said:My son's been offered a job processing CERN data.
Huh; I bet it will be really dull; looking at page after page of computer print outs in some pokey office...
(I'm only saying that 'cos I'm really, really jealous
As am I. Sigh.