Posted on 06/09/2003 6:11:13 AM PDT by andy224
Atlas holds key to scientists' map of Universe By Mark Henderson A vast cavern is the stage for tests to find the 'God particle'
SCIENTISTS have taken a step closer to finding the “God particle” that is thought to shape the Universe. In a concrete cavern 130ft deep and bigger than the nave of Canterbury Cathedral, they will mimic the high-energy conditions that existed fractions of a second after the Big Bang to study a beam of energy a quarter of the thickness of a human hair.
The vast Atlas cavern, which was completed last week at Cern, the European nuclear physics laboratory on the Franco-Swiss border, will house parts of a giant atom-smasher that is expected to solve the most elusive riddle in physics.
When the £1.5 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is switched on in 2007, it will determine once and for all whether the Higgs boson, a mysterious fundamental particle held to give matter its mass, really exists. If the machine finds the boson, proposed by Professor Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University in 1964, it will prove that the Standard Model for the nature of the Universe is correct. If not, the maxims of modern physics will be thrown into disarray.
The boson was nicknamed the “God particle” by the Nobel laureate Leon Lederman for its centrality to the cosmos. Although it will be so small that its presence can only be calculated, not seen, the search for it requires some of the largest and most advanced scientific instruments designed.
The LHC itself is a ring 17 miles (27km) in circumference, buried up to 100m (330ft) underground, through which streams of protons will be bent by the world’s most powerful magnets and smashed into each other at close to the speed of light.
The new cavern, which will house the Atlas detector for tracking the Higgs and other particles, is 40m (130ft) deep, 55m (180ft) long and 35m (115ft) wide.
However, the proton beam that runs through both devices measures just 10 microns in diameter: less than a quarter of the thickness of the average human hair. Roger Cashmore, a British physicist and Cern’s director of research, said: “It is an astonishing feat of engineering. The consultants were on the verge of saying it was impossible to build. But the Atlas cavern is finished, the biggest of its kind in the world, and these experiments are going to tell us whether we’re right about the Universe.”
The current best guide to the nature of the Universe is the Standard Model, an elegant theory that describes how most particles and forces interact. The Higgs boson is its missing keystone: without it, there is no good explanation for why matter has mass and therefore exists.
According to the theory, the Universe is permeated by a field of Higgs bosons, which consist of mass but very little else. As particles move through the field, they interact with it like a ball dropped into a tub of treacle, getting slower, stickier and heavier. Their ultimate mass depends on the strength of the interaction.
Though mathematics predicts its existence, the Higgs boson has never been detected. It is so heavy that the biggest atom-smashers, Cern’s Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP) and the Tevatron at Fermilab in Illinois, have been unable to generate the high energy collisions needed to reveal it, although they have found hints that it is probably there. This is where the LHC comes in. It is 70 times as powerful as the LEP and seven times stronger than the Tevatron, covering all the energy values at which the Higgs might exist. If it is there, it will find it.
What is more, if the “God particle” proves to be a false deity, the LHC will unlock the secret of what is out there instead. “If it doesn’t find the Higgs, it will find what substitutes for it,” Dr Cashmore said.
Jim Virdee, Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London, and a leading Cern researcher, said: “There has to be something else, beyond what we have found already, that explains mass. We believe it’s the Higgs, but Nature may be smarter than us. Either way, the results will tell us what is the right road.”
The atom-smasher will accelerate protons so close to the speed of light that they become 7,000 times heavier than normal. The beams are bent into a circle by superconducting magnets, cooled by liquid helium at -271.4C, almost a degree colder than outer space.
When the protons collide, they are destroyed in a huge burst of energy. This energy coalesces into very heavy particles, one of which scientists hope will be the Higgs.
As the boson is unstable, it will quickly decay, scattering a characteristic signature of smaller particles and energy. These will be picked up by the LHC’s eyes — the Atlas and a sister detector — which surround the collision points.
The detectors, which stand 22m (72ft) and 15m (49ft) tall respectively, are “giant microscopes” built like onions, with several layers of instruments that track particles and measure energy.
The experiments will generate enormous quantities of data, much of it unwanted. “Colliding two protons is like colliding two oranges,” Dr Lyn Evans, director of the LHC project, said. “You’ll occasionally get a collision between two pips, the interesting bits, but you’ll get a lot of pulp. We need to reject an enormous amount of data to pick out the important bits.” Professor Virdee said that the data generated in one second was the equivalent of what all the world’s telecommunications generated in one year.
Even if this wealth of information proves the existence of the Higgs boson, the LHC will continue to serve scientific knowledge for decades.
“Let’s say we have the Higgs,” Dr Cashmore said. “I’d feel warm and content for a few microseconds, then I’d be asking new questions. Why does it affect different particles in different ways? “It would be spectacularly good to find it — I’m not trying to knock it — but it will pose a whole new set of problems. If we are an inquisitive society, these are the things we ought to be doing."
A photon lives "forever" unbound does it not? What happens to it when bound?
They may encourage as much as they want. I can spend my money on rent if I choose(or live under a bridge and spend it on Mad Dog 20/20 and understand the universe a bit more). However, when they take my money, I lose control of it.
The microwave background is a rather good record of the b-b conditions.
Einstein created photons as a handy entity in a few of his theoretical models. That is still where photons exist: in the physical models.
Well they give a lot of evidence of existence outside of models.
What is the difference if you and a few million others choose to spend your personal discretionary funds on cars and red wine or if the funds are concentrated and the system chooses to spend the pooled resources on cars and red wine?
None, if that is my choice.
I believe the consensus is from the wind(the immediate cause). And it goes somewhat into the air as noise. As to a pipe being a particle, not in the most common sense.
-Update of Bucky's Nine Chains.
If a man's grope exceed his reach....
Well...they're getting there. They'll have to wait until this thing is switched on in 2007.
And then what happens if Atlas shrugs?
"The boson was nicknamed the “God particle” by the Nobel laureate Leon Lederman for its centrality to the cosmos. Although it will be so small that its presence can only be calculated, not seen...
Ahhh. I see.
So our "maxims of modern physics" (much like our 'understanding' of Evolution) rely upon our having faith in something which not only have we never proven the existence of, but even once found cannot be seen. Hmmm....
Yeah, that Science stuff sure is an "end all, be all" for people who choose not to rely on Faith alone, huh? Way too funny.
;-/
From the article---- The vast Atlas cavern, which was completed last week at Cern, the European nuclear physics laboratory on the Franco-Swiss border, will house parts of a giant atom-smasher that is expected to solve the most elusive riddle in physics.
If I remember correctly #42 cut funding for this project, while cutting back the Military Funding too.He sure found time to give bonuses to the tune of 28 Million dollars to Gov't workers at taxpayer expense though didn't he? One more abuse swept under the rug, because the economy was on fire.The mere fact that the French people will have one-upped America by building their own atom smasher, should offend any American who has even the slightest interest in physics.It's another example in the long line of actions #42 took, in not helping America to become the best/strongest/most going forward country possible.
No it wouldn't. Somewhere not too far off of the earth, the chain would break.
But, who is using the silly phrase "God particle" in the first place? And why, really? (I mean why really?).
BTW, I imagine that it wouldn't be Christians per se who complain the most about this and that there are many of them engaged in such projects. From what I see of their political doctrine, it would be libertarians and especially, "objectivists" that would be complaining the loudest about such a use of tax dollars.
Not very laissez faire, now is such a collective project based upon confiscated money?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
