Modern Express: Hadron Collider Starts at 15:30 Today, Unraveling the Mystery of the Universe’s Birth:
According to PhysOrg, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment is the most complex scientific experiment ever conducted, and its main purpose is to unravel the mystery of the universe’s birth. With the goal of filling in the gaps in our understanding of the universe, subatomic particles will be accelerated to near the speed of light and then made to collide. Beyond that, the collision experiment may also verify some novel theories about space-time and answer the question of whether another dimension exists.
After nearly 20 years of effort and 6 billion Swiss francs, 5,000 scientists, engineers and technicians from dozens of countries are turning this enormous project into reality. At 7:30 GMT on the 10th (15:30 Beijing time on the 10th), the first protons will be injected into a 27-kilometer ring-shaped tunnel spanning the Swiss-French border. CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) headquarters is also located on the Swiss-French border.
As the first step in a long-term experiment, the beam of subatomic particles will be accelerated to near the speed of light and then collide, with the impact producing, in a tiny space, a brief temperature 100,000 times that of the sun. Analysts will closely monitor the entire collision process in search of fundamental particles.
“We are entering a whole new realm of physics,” said Peter Jenni, spokesperson for ATLAS (short for A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS). “The 10th is a very important milestone.” ATLAS is one of four huge laboratories installed on the ring tunnel. Detectors attached around the tunnel will monitor the collision process.
In an experiment lasting 10 hours, the particle beams may travel more than 10 billion kilometers, enough for a round trip between Earth and Neptune. At maximum intensity, each beam carries energy equivalent to that of a car traveling at 1,600 kilometers per hour. The Large Hadron Collider will consume 120 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to the power consumption of every household in Geneva.
Two Hypotheses
The Doomsday Nightmare
Some scientists worry that great caution is warranted when it comes to starting the hadron collider. In fact, ever since the multinational construction of the Large Hadron Collider began in 1994, some doomsayers have alarmingly claimed that “reproducing” the universe’s initial state after the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago would lead to a catastrophe.
Not long ago, a small group of dissenting scientists filed a lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights. They argue that while the probability of the Large Hadron Collider experiment producing a mini black hole is very small, that possibility does not equal zero. Once a black hole forms, Earth would face being swallowed. Others go further, claiming that the consequences would be far more than just a black hole — the collision experiment could trigger a catastrophic chain reaction in the structure of space-time, tearing the entire universe to shreds. To that end, they put forward two terrifying hypotheses.
First hypothesis: We would see no warning at all; within perhaps less than a month, all life on Earth would suddenly come to an end. After that, terrifying earthquakes would erupt suddenly, sea levels would rise rapidly, and super tsunamis would strike coastlines around the world.
In the end, the apocalypse described in the Bible would descend upon humanity, and the entire Earth would be destroyed.
The second doomsday hypothesis is even more terrifying: without any warning whatsoever, in roughly one-twelfth of a second the entire Earth would vanish into space. In less than two seconds, the Moon would follow Earth. Eight minutes later, the Sun would be split in two. After that, the same fate would befall the other planets in the solar system. More seriously, the massive destruction caused by cracks in the fabric of space would spread outward at the speed of light, and every world beyond Earth would meet its end.
Four Reasons
It Won’t Destroy Earth
“The Large Hadron Collider experiment could destroy Earth” — headlines like that may help sell newspapers, but the media has paid no attention to the truth, and has even deliberately ignored important details. The scientists in charge of the collision experiment explain: first, nature can produce subatomic particles with even higher energies than those the Large Hadron Collider generates in the form of cosmic rays. For billions of years, they have rained down on Earth in huge numbers — and yet here we still are on Earth, still writing stories about them?
Second, these mini black holes aren’t just small black holes — they are actually only subatomic in size, roughly the size of an electron or a proton. If the Large Hadron Collider ran for a hundred years, all the energy these particles produce still wouldn’t be enough to light a single light bulb. Although the subatomic particles produced by the Large Hadron Collider can reach trillions of electron volts, the maximum rate at which it could produce mini black holes might be one per second, and such a tiny rate couldn’t cause any perceptible harm to anyone.
Third, these mini black holes are extremely unstable and would collapse very quickly. In fact, these black holes go in the opposite direction — they emit radiation, so they ultimately disappear without a trace, rather than continuously swallowing matter, growing larger and larger, and finally devouring Earth.
Fourth, according to Werner Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle,” anything has some tiny possibility of happening — it’s just that the probability of such a thing happening is extremely small, perhaps so small that it won’t happen in the entire lifetime of the universe.
Of course, some experts also argue that if something is so extremely rare that it might never happen in the entire lifetime of the universe, physicists should tell the media that such a thing won’t happen.
Related
Producing a Host of Valuable Byproducts
This grand scientific experiment will also yield some amazing byproducts, such as improved cancer treatment, ways to destroy nuclear waste, and help for scientists studying climate change.
Over the course of a year, the two proton beams in this machine will collide at high speed, generating enough data to fill 5.6 million CDs. That means physicists have to develop a complex, sophisticated system for processing information quickly. What they call the Grid may become a model for many other systems used to handle massive amounts of data. The findings of another project suggest that new ways of dealing with nuclear waste could be found in these collisions. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research have discovered that firing a proton beam (one kind of subatomic particle) into a lead plate produces a large number of neutrons (another kind of subatomic particle), and these neutrons can break radioactive waste down into harmless, stable elements.
In addition, the European Organization for Nuclear Research has also contributed to medical research, because they discovered that beams of charged particles such as protons, carbon ions and even antimatter can be used to treat cancer.
Cloud formation is a crucial factor for climate and weather, and this research could put the European Organization for Nuclear Research at the center of a debate over whether factors other than greenhouse gases are linked to climate change.
Researchers will use a proton beam from the Proton Synchrotron to simulate cosmic rays, firing them into a so-called “cloud chamber” to see whether small patches of cloud form.
Starting today, scientists will find out whether the enormous sums spent building the Large Hadron Collider were really worth it.
Sidelights
The Experiment Was Turned Into a Rap Song
The Large Hadron Collider experiment may be making some people fear for the world’s future, but what nobody expected is that someone actually turned the collision experiment into a rap song, making the seemingly impossible marriage of a physics experiment and music a reality.
This rap song was written and performed by 23-year-old Kate McAlpine. McAlpine works in the press office of the CERN laboratory.
Rap songs often deal with themes like violence and crime, and rarely have anything to do with high-energy particle physics. In that sense, McAlpine’s act is quite unconventional. One verse of the rap goes like this: “Two protons spinning through the ring / until they reach the detector’s heart / and then collide / all the energy gathered in that tiny space becomes mass and creates particles in the vacuum.”
CERN spokesperson James Gillies said: “We love this rap song. Physics can also find its place in the music world.” McAlpine was given permission to film herself and her friends dancing in the huge cavern and tunnels where the collision experiment will take place.
Simulation animation of the Hadron Collider’s Big Bang experiment:
The rap mentioned above — staff rap to showcase the European Hadron Collider:
Physicists from various countries predict the outcome of the Large Hadron Collider experiment:
Hawking bets $100: the collider will not find the God particle
According to foreign media reports, the Large Hadron Collider was designed to unlock the mystery of the universe’s birth by launching the largest-scale research in human history. But can it reveal why most subatomic particles have mass — which may signal the existence of the Higgs particle? Can this massive experiment uncover why the Creator favored matter and slighted antimatter? Can it overturn our current understanding of fundamental particles and forces? The Daily Telegraph interviewed several of the world’s leading theoretical physicists, asking them to lay out their predictions for the collider’s results.
Prediction of Nima Arkani-Hamed of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA
I’m betting a year’s salary that they will find the Higgs particle. They are also quite likely to observe the particles that make up the mysterious dark matter in the universe. This kind of dark matter may or may not be related to supersymmetry. I think there is a fairly high probability that the Large Hadron Collider will reveal supersymmetry. It would explain beautifully why gravity appears so weak compared with the other fundamental forces. The Large Hadron Collider experiments may also tell us that our existing ideas about what nature is made of are simply incorrect.
Prediction of Nobel laureate Martinus Veltman of Utrecht University, the Netherlands
I won’t be surprised if this experiment finds no Higgs particle, because I don’t believe in Higgs theory. But if a Higgs particle is found, it will be crucial to test whether it matches theoretical predictions. I would be surprised if supersymmetry is found. I was very supportive when the theory was first proposed, but now I’ve gradually lost faith in it — perhaps I’m wrong. Of course, if the Large Hadron Collider finds no evidence supporting supersymmetry, its supporters will still make excuses and keep clinging to the theory. As for string theory, that’s meaningless talk with no connection to experiment.
Prediction of Eva Silverstein of Stanford University, USA
I would be very surprised if no Higgs particle is found, but if they don’t find evidence of supersymmetry, that’s fine too. Some of my views come from string theory, which holds great promise as a theory unifying the forces of nature. According to many — or most — string theories, supersymmetry is not operative at the energies the Large Hadron Collider explores. So its discovery might require further explanation of this view. On the other hand, supersymmetry fits very well with some existing observations. The final revelation of whether it exists will be something to look forward to.
Prediction of John March-Russell of Oxford University
Unlike the general predictions about the Large Hadron Collider’s results, some possible discoveries could even lead to technological change. For example, the answer to the question of where favorable climate energy comes from may be related to the formation of unstable but fairly long-lived exotic charged particles. Like the biochemical enzymes in the body that promote chemical reactions, these exotic particles could efficiently catalyze nuclear fusion without the extremely high temperatures that plasma fusion reactors and stars normally require. The results might also reveal that the number of space-time dimensions is ambiguous, resembling more an ordinary hologram in which two and three dimensions coexist.
Prediction of Chris Llewellyn Smith, director of the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham and director-general of CERN from 1994 to 1999
I think both the Higgs boson and supersymmetry will be found — the former with 95% probability, the latter with 60%. As for new discoveries of exotic particles, I’d put the probability at only 5%. If the Large Hadron Collider produces no new discoveries (which I think has a 5% probability), I’ll feel a little embarrassed, since I spent years of my life on it. Finding nothing would also be surprising and would force people to rethink, but if the collider can lead to further new discoveries, that would be the most exciting outcome of all.
Prediction of Garrett Lisi, the physicist who proposed a new superstring theory and is known as the “surfing fanatic”
The most likely result of the Large Hadron Collider is the discovery of a Higgs particle. The Higgs particle has to break the unified symmetry of the electroweak force, leading to the separated electromagnetic and weak forces we see. Many physicists also think this experiment may find supersymmetry, strings or new dimensions, but I don’t think so. If the Large Hadron Collider really does find many new particles, my guess is that they are just several different kinds of Higgs particles. Whatever the result, it’s exciting that nature’s beauty can be revealed at such a tiny scale.”
Related topics: http://news.xinhuanet.com/tech/2008-09/09/content_9867754.htm