The Race to the Higgs Boson: LHC Versus Tevatron

iteletxioy · **Joined:** Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:08 am **Posts:** 1804

It"s on!

While the LHC"s in the shop for repairs from its massive breakdown last September, an older particle accelerator might beat them to finding the Higgs boson, the fundamental particle thought to give matter mass.

At a conference last week, Tevatron physicists threw down the gauntlet, vowing that by 2011, the Tevatron accelerator (located at Fermi National Accelerator Lab outside Chicago) will be able to definitively prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs boson.

Tevatron is currently the highest-energy particle collider, until the LHC starts up again this November (fingers crossed). The poor, ailing LHC will still maintain its dominance in the search for dark matter, which isn"t Tevatron"s specialty.

Which one will end the universe is still up for grabs.

[Via New Scientist]

Fuente

Y_nezcuttowi_Y · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:35 am **Posts:** 2692

Before scientists can put the Large Hadron Collider back to work this month solving the mysteries of particle physics, the LHCs engineers face critical repairs to the $5-billion device. First up: Fix the 53 superconducting magnets trashed in September 2008 when a power cable broke, causing the magnets to warm above their 458F operating temperature and lose conductivity, or quench. Then pipes for helium coolant melted, further damaging the magnets. Here, the other key upgrades and a few of the thousand chores still to go:

Drill eight-inch relief valves into half of the 1,232 dipole magnets that steer the proton beam around the track, to allow for a controlled pressure release in case of another leak.

Install a new quench-protection system, which is 1,000 times as sensitive as its predecessor and shuts off the accelerator if it detects an abnormal voltage increasean indicator of a heat spike.

Search for and eliminate electrical faults between the magnetsespecially where the cables joinwhich could increase electrical resistance, causing the cables to overheat and melt.

Cool the entire 17-mile track back down to 458F with liquid helium. (Engineers brought the sections up to room temperature so they could work inside the tunnel.)

Ramp up the current in the magnets from a couple hundred amps to 6,000 over a few weeks. During this time, test the quench-protection system by intentionally overheating the magnets.

Perform the final machine check, covering some 10,000 items, such as the systems that inject the proton beam into the collider and extract it within 1/5,000 of a second if a magnet fails.

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iteletxioy · **Joined:** Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:08 am **Posts:** 1804

Baguette Dropped From Bird"s Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)

The Baguette Incident: Re-enacted according to eyewitness accounts. nbsp;CERN; Bird via Foxypar4/Flickr

The Large Hadron Collider, the world"s most powerful particle accelerator, just cannot catch a break. First, a coolant leak destroyed some of the magnets that guide the energy beam. Then LHC officials postponed the restart of the machine to add additional safety features. Now, a bird dropping a piece of bread on a section of the accelerator has, according to the Register, shut down the whole operation.

The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery, eventually leading to significant over heating in parts of the accelerator. The LHC was not operational at the time of the incident, but the spike produced so much heat that had the beam been on, automatic failsafes would have shut down the machine.

This incident won"t delay the reactivation of the facility later this month, but exposes yet another vulnerability of the what might be the most complex machine ever built. With freak accident after freak accident piling up over at CERN, the idea of time traveling particles returning from the future to prevent their own discovery is beginning to seem less and less far fetched.

[via The Register]

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Y_nezcuttowi_Y · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:35 am **Posts:** 2692

Could CERN"s LHC Detect the Existence of a Parallel Universe

Several of the world"s leading cosmologists believe that we are but one of many universes. As yet, as we know, there is no evidence of there being other universes out there. Some versions of this theory suggest that there is at least one other universe very close to our own, separated perhaps bu a membrane as little as a millimeter away, which, if true, could be detectable by some energy or forces such as gravity leaking through.In fact, as predicted by brane theorists, this "leakage" could be responsible for the production of dark energy from a parallel universe, its influence felt in our own through its gravitational pull.

Many of the multiple universe proponents are awaiting eagerly for the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva to smash the basic components of the universe together at near the speed of light along a 84-kilometer-long underground racetrack, causing an awesomely high energy reaction similar to the temperatures involved at the Big Bang and spew out the secrets to the cosmos. More exciting than the discovery of Higgs Boson, who"s functionis giving mass to the particles of matter,could be the possible creation of tiny, particle-sized black holes.Real data from these experiments will rewrite the theorists" Guide to the Quantum Universe.

According to current physics these nano black holes could not be created at the energy levels the LHC is capable of producing. They could only be created if a parallel universe actually exists, providing the extra gravitation needed to generate the nano black holes.

Casey Kazan

Sources:

Before the Big Bang -The Prehistory of Our Universe, Brian Clegg.

Parallel Worlds, Michu Kaku.

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iteletxioy · **Joined:** Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:08 am **Posts:** 1804

LHC Smashes World Record -Will It Ultimately Reveal Signals from Another Universe (Weekend Feature)

The Large Hadron Collider set a new record for the creation of energetic particle beams this past week. The particle accelerator, which surpassed Fermilabs Tevatron in December, smashed its own record, charging particles to 3.48 trillion electron volts, or three...

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tioggak · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:00 am **Posts:** 1418

Time to Cross the Beams! LHC to Commence First Proton Smashing Tomorrow

Although some of us feel like we"ve heard this story before

The Large Hadron Collider has been coming along in fits and starts, but the European Organization for Nuclear Research plans to begin colliding the highest energy proton beams ever conjured tomorrow, heralding a new era of science and discovery. If it works, that is.

The LHC has been set back by mechanical failure and even breakdown-by-baguette after a bird dropped a bread crust into an exterior piece of machinery. But the world"s largest and most expensive science experiment has been revving up to 3.5 trillion electron volts with no problems over the last ten days with no real problems, hurtling hundreds of billions of protons around the 17-mile underground tunnel at unprecedented speeds.

If the first beam collisions at that energy don"t happen tomorrow, it will likely be a matter of finesse rather than failure; it could take up to a few days for the researchers to coax the massive machine into precision cooperation.

Of course, the real question is: will researchers at the LHC find the Higgs boson -- the hypothetical "god particle" that researchers hope will shed light on some of the universe"s greatest mysteries. The short answer is: Not tomorrow. Or the next day. It will likely be months before the huge amounts of data can be analyzed and solid scientific discoveries can be made. But researchers hope to have a better grasp on dark matter, dark energy and some of astrophysics"s other unknowns by the end of the year.

[AP]

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Y_nezcuttowi_Y · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:35 am **Posts:** 2692

Physicists Laud Large Hadron Collider"s Success; "Huge Step Toward Unraveling Genesis Chapter 1"

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Y_nezcuttowi_Y · **Joined:** Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:35 am **Posts:** 2692

In Largest Science Experiment Ever, Three Spacecraft Will Swap Laser Fire Across 3 Million Miles

LISA Will Listen for Gravitational Waves ESA

The NASA/ESA LISA project aims to measure gravitational waves with giant lasers and free-falling cubes of gold

CERN"s Large Hadron Collider is currently the biggest science experiment in operation, but it may have to pass that mantle on soon enough. A collaboration between NASA and the ESA plans to launch three spacecraft into orbit around the sun 3 million miles apart, then have them shoot lasers at each other, all in the name of proving the existence of gravitational waves, the last piece of Einstein"s relativity theory that is as yet unproved.

Einstein"s general relativity predicts several things, such as gravity"s ability to bend time light and the constant speed at which gravity travels. But a means to prove the existence of gravitational waves -- huge ripples in time and space that flow outwards from the collision of huge celestial bodies like black holes -- has eluded scientists for years.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, aims to do just that. Three spacecraft, each carrying floating cubes of gold/platinum alloy, will leave earth and settle into different solar orbits 3 million miles apart. They will then fire laser beams between one another, measuring the relative positions of their respective cubes to within 40 millionths of a millionth of a meter.

If gravitational waves do exist, they should slightly alter the distance between the cubes, making them detectable for the first time, a feat ground-based instruments have been unable to accomplish. And if they do prove to be real, gravitational waves should offer researchers a good deal of information about the universe and its composition.

Work is already underway on LISA"s instruments, and British-based Astrium EADS is already preparing a precursor mission called LISA Pathfinder due for launch next year. As for LISA, don"t hold your breath. The largest scientific instrument in the universe isn"t slated for launch until 2020.

[Telegraph]

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agqu · **Joined:** Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:59 am **Posts:** 1390

Will CERN"s LHC Solve the Mystery of "The Great Attractor"?

With its successful test run at the end of 2009, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, is poised to answer some of the most vexing problems of modern physics and. open new frontiers in understanding space and time, the...

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agqu · **Joined:** Thu Apr 02, 2009 6:59 am **Posts:** 1390

LHC Scientists Simulate the Sound of the "God Particle"

Particle Collision Data from the LHC From all that visual noise, music.

If a theoretical force-carrying, subatomic particle were to materialize in the universe and no one were around to hear it, would it make a sound? Existential aspects aside, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider believe that the elusive Higgs boson, should it prove to be real, will most definitely make a sound, and they plan to be around to hear it. In fact, that"s one of the ways they plan to detect the so-called "god particle," and they"ve simulated the sounds a Higgs boson might make so they can listen for its arrival.

The sound won"t actually come from the particles themselves, but from the ATLAS experiment, one of the four huge sensors placed within the 17-mile particle collider. One of ATLAS"s sensors, the calorimeter, measures energy from proton collisions is made of seven concentric layers. Each layer represents a different note, and their pitches can change based on the amount of energy produced by a particle collision.

From that, researchers at the LHC have simulated what the emergence of a Higgs boson might sound like if and when it occurs within ATLAS based on what they think the energy of a particle"s emergence would produce. The sounds are actually very musical and quite beautiful, if a bit eerie (akin to listening to an Aphex Twin record). Researchers will use the sound signatures as an analytical tool to help them identify new particles if they do indeed emerge from the particle collisions.

Click through to BBC to hear the background symphony of the universe, in three beautiful movements.

[BBC]

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