Showing posts with label LHC switch on 10 September 2008. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LHC switch on 10 September 2008. Show all posts
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Big Bang Day: The Genuine Particle
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
'Big Bang' experiment starts well
More from Today programme
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News
 The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years |
Scientists have hailed a successful switch-on for an enormous experiment which will recreate the conditions a few moments after the Big Bang.
They have now fired two beams of particles called protons around the 27km-long tunnel which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The £5bn machine on the Swiss-French border is designed to smash protons together with cataclysmic force.
Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.
The first - clockwise - beam completed its first circuit of the underground tunnel at just before 0930 BST. The second - anti-clockwise - beam successfully circled the ring after 1400 BST.
 |  We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang  Dr Tara Shears, University of Liverpool  |
By Wednesday evening, engineers hope to inject clockwise and anti-clockwise protons again, but this time they will "close the orbit", letting the beams run continuously for a few seconds each.
Cern has not yet announced when it plans to carry out the first collisions, but the BBC understands that low-energy collisions could happen in the next few days. This will allow engineers to calibrate instruments, but will not produce data of scientific interest.
"There it is," project leader Lyn Evans said when the beam completed its lap. There were cheers in the control room when engineers heard of the successful test.
Montage of key moments from switch-on
The LHC is arguably the most complicated and ambitious experiment ever built; the project has been hit by cost overruns, equipment trouble and construction problems. The switch-on itself is two years late.
The collider is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research - better known by its French acronym Cern.
The vast circular tunnel - the "ring" - which runs under the French-Swiss border contains more than 1,000 cylindrical magnets arranged end-to-end.
The magnets are there to steer the beam - made up of particles called protons - around this 27km-long ring.
|  |
At allotted points around the tunnel, the beams will cross paths, smashing together near four massive "detectors" that monitor the collisions for interesting events.
Scientists are hoping that new sub-atomic particles will emerge, revealing fundamental insights into the nature of the cosmos.
Major effort
"We will be able to see deeper into matter than ever before," said Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool.
"We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang. That is amazing, that really is fantastic."
The LHC should answer one very simple question: What is mass?
| LHC DETECTORS ATLAS - one of two so-called general purpose detectors. Atlas will be used to look for signs of new physics, including the origins of mass and extra dimensions CMS - the second general purpose detector will, like ATLAS, hunt for the Higgs boson and look for clues to the nature of dark matter ALICE - will study a "liquid" form of matter called quark-gluon plasma that existed shortly after the Big Bang LHCb - Equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created in the Big Bang. LHCb will try to investigate what happened to the "missing" anti-matter |
"We know the answer will be found at the LHC," said Jim Virdee, a particle physicist at Imperial College London.
The currently favoured model involves a particle called the Higgs boson - dubbed the "God Particle". According to the theory, particles acquire their mass through interactions with an all-pervading field carried by the Higgs.
The latest astronomical observations suggest ordinary matter - such as the galaxies, gas, stars and planets - makes up just 4% of the Universe.
The rest is dark matter (23%) and dark energy (73%). Physicists think the LHC could provide clues about the nature of this mysterious "stuff".
But Professor Virdee told BBC News: "Nature can surprise us... we have to be ready to detect anything it throws at us."
Full beam ahead
Engineers injected the first low-intensity proton beams into the LHC in August. But they did not go all the way around the ring.
Technicians had to be on the lookout for potential problems.
Steve Myers, head of the accelerator and beam department, said: "There are on the order of 2,000 magnetic circuits in the machine. This means there are 2,000 power supplies which generate the current which flows in the coils of the magnets."
If there was a fault with any of these, he said, it would have stopped the beams. They were also wary of obstacles in the beam pipe which could prevent the protons from completing their first circuit.
Superconducting magnets are cooled down using liquid helium
Mr Myers has experience of the latter problem. While working on the LHC's predecessor, a machine called the Large-Electron Positron Collider, engineers found two beer bottles wedged into the beam pipe - a deliberate, one-off act of sabotage.
The culprits - who were drinking a particular brand that advertising once claimed would "refresh the parts other beers cannot reach" - were never found.
In order to get both beams to circulate continuously around the LHC, engineers have to "close the orbit". The beams themselves are made up of several "packets" - each about a metre long - containing billions of protons.
HAVE YOUR SAY
I think it is disgraceful that huge sums of cash have been spent on this project
Robert, Spain
The protons would disperse if left to their own devices, so engineers use electrical forces to "grab" them, keeping the particles tightly huddled in packets.
Once the beams are captured, the same system of electrical forces is used to give the particles an energetic kick, accelerating them to greater and greater speeds.
Long haul
The idea of the Large Hadron Collider emerged in the early 1980s. The project was eventually approved in 1996 at a cost of 2.6bn Swiss Francs, which amounts to about £1.3bn at present exchange rates.
However, Cern underestimated equipment and engineering costs when it set out its original budget, plunging the lab into a cash crisis.
| FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME |
Cern had to borrow hundreds of millions of euros in bank loans to get the LHC completed. The current price is nearly four times that originally envisaged.
During winter, the LHC will be shut down, allowing equipment to be fine-tuned for collisions at full energy.
"What's so exciting is that we haven't had a large new facility starting up for years," explained Dr Shears.
"Our experiments are so huge, so complex and so expensive that they don't come along very often. When they do, we get all the physics out of them that we can."
Engineers celebrated the success with champagne, but a certain brand of beer was not on the menu.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The LHC's dress rehearsal goes with a hitch.
- Tue 9 Sep 08, 03:09 PM
- Source: BBC
The LHC's dress rehearsal goes with a hitch.
Things are hotting up in the main control room here at Cern. We've just been through a full dress rehearsal for the big "switch on" of the Large Hadron Collider - due to take place at 8.30 tomorrow morning.
I watched on a giant computer screen alongside dozens of scientists and technicians as a beam of protons was fired down a linear accelerator, slung round two synchotrons to pick up energy, and finally dumped at the gates of the LHC.
Tomorrow those gates will be open, and - if all goes well - the first proton beam will shoot clockwise round all 27 kilometres of the LHC at very nearly the speed of light.
But it could have been very different. Last night a component on one of the cryogenics units - which cool the core of the machine to minus 271 degrees - snapped, and two sections of the LHC began to warm up again.
"It's just a little piece of wire about six inches long," operations group leader Paul Collier told me.
"But it just goes to show what can go wrong with a machine of this size and complexity."
The problem has now been fixed, and the temperature in both sections is falling back towards absolute zero. "Fingers crossed," Paul Collier says. "We're still on course for tomorrow. But if it happens again now we'll be in a lot of trouble".But after all, something should go wrong in a dress rehearsal if it's going to be all right on the night...
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Big Bang Machine
Professor Brian Cox visits Geneva to take a look around Cern's Large Hadron Collider before this vast, 27km long machine is sealed-off and the experiment to create the simulation of a black hole begins.
When it's up and running, it will be capable of creating the conditions that existed just a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. Brian joins the scientists who hope that the LHC will change our understanding of the early universe and solve some of its mysteries.
When it's up and running, it will be capable of creating the conditions that existed just a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. Brian joins the scientists who hope that the LHC will change our understanding of the early universe and solve some of its mysteries.
- Broadcast on:
- BBC Four, 9:00pm Thursday 4th September
- Duration:
- 60 minutes
- Available until:
- 9:59pm Thursday 11th September
Big Bang Day: Five Particles: The Electron
Simon Singh examines the significance of subatomic particles.
British physicist JJ Thompson's experiments with electric currents showed that atoms are divisible into elementary particles. But how has the power of electrons been harnessed for everyday use?
British physicist JJ Thompson's experiments with electric currents showed that atoms are divisible into elementary particles. But how has the power of electrons been harnessed for everyday use?
- Broadcast on:
- BBC Radio 4, 3:45pm Monday 8th September
- Duration:
- 15 minutes
- Available until:
- 4:02pm Monday 15th September
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Mysteries of the Universe will be solved, starting next Wednesday
Source: The Times.
Beneath the foothills of the Jura mountains, in a network of tunnels that bring to mind the lair of a crazed Bond villain, scientists will fire a first beam of particles around a ring as long as the Circle Line on the London Underground. This colossal circuit, 17 miles (27km) in circumference,
In the years ahead it will recreate the high-energy conditions that existed one trillionth of a second after the big bang. In doing so, it should solve many of the most enduring mysteries of the Universe.
This extraordinary feat of engineering will accelerate two streams of protons to within 99.9999991 per cent of the speed of light, so that they complete 11,245 17-mile laps in a single second. The two streams will collide, at four points, with the energy of two aircraft carriers sailing into each other at 11 knots, inside detectors so vast that one is housed in a cavern that could enclose the nave of Westminster Abbey.
The mountains of data produced will shed light on some of the toughest questions in physics. The origin of mass, the workings of gravity, the existence of extra dimensions and the nature of the 95 per cent of the Universe that cannot be seen will all be examined. Perhaps the biggest prize of all is the “God particle” – the Higgs boson.
“What we find honestly depends on what’s there,” said Brian Cox, of the University of Manchester, an investigator on one of the four detectors, named Atlas. “I don’t believe there’s ever been a machine like this, that’s guaranteed to deliver. We know it will discover exciting things. We just don’t know what they are yet.”
“The beam is 2mm in diameter and has to be threaded into a vacuum pipe the size of a 50p piece around a 27km loop,” said Lyn Evans, the LHC’s project manager, who will oversee the insertion. “It is not going to be trivial.”
Beneath the foothills of the Jura mountains, in a network of tunnels that bring to mind the lair of a crazed Bond villain, scientists will fire a first beam of particles around a ring as long as the Circle Line on the London Underground. This colossal circuit, 17 miles (27km) in circumference,
In the years ahead it will recreate the high-energy conditions that existed one trillionth of a second after the big bang. In doing so, it should solve many of the most enduring mysteries of the Universe.
This extraordinary feat of engineering will accelerate two streams of protons to within 99.9999991 per cent of the speed of light, so that they complete 11,245 17-mile laps in a single second. The two streams will collide, at four points, with the energy of two aircraft carriers sailing into each other at 11 knots, inside detectors so vast that one is housed in a cavern that could enclose the nave of Westminster Abbey.
The mountains of data produced will shed light on some of the toughest questions in physics. The origin of mass, the workings of gravity, the existence of extra dimensions and the nature of the 95 per cent of the Universe that cannot be seen will all be examined. Perhaps the biggest prize of all is the “God particle” – the Higgs boson.
“What we find honestly depends on what’s there,” said Brian Cox, of the University of Manchester, an investigator on one of the four detectors, named Atlas. “I don’t believe there’s ever been a machine like this, that’s guaranteed to deliver. We know it will discover exciting things. We just don’t know what they are yet.”
“The beam is 2mm in diameter and has to be threaded into a vacuum pipe the size of a 50p piece around a 27km loop,” said Lyn Evans, the LHC’s project manager, who will oversee the insertion. “It is not going to be trivial.”
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
September 10th - CERN switch on LHC
On September 10th, CERN will switch on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)and in the process begin arguably the most ambitious science experiment ever undertaken.
Radio 4 has a great web resource and a dozen or so radio programmes around the 10th September. Also a Radio and Video interviews archive with:-
Brian Cox
Adam Hart-Davis
Ben Miller
Dara O'Briain
Simon Singh
Steve Punt.
Enjoy!!
Professor Brian Cox answers questions
Questions and Answers
Professor Brian Cox answers questions sent in by the audience about CERN's new Large Hadron Collider and the major experiment which is planned to be launched on the 10 september 2008. Do you have a question? Ask expert Brian Cox anything about the project and read his responses to other questions.
Can you tell me why we are doing this experiment? I can understand that you are hoping to reveal the origins of mass by smashing tiny particles together but what advantages (besides increase in knowledge), do you expect to obtain from this?
Stephen
BC.
Will the Collider be able to prove to scientists that many other dimensions exist as well as ours? If so, then what will the implications be for our future, and could this be a good explanation for the many UFO sightings around the world.
Ian
BC
Will the LHC help our understanding of Dark Matter (which seems to make up most of the Universe) and Dark Energy (which seems to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe)? Are these phenomena 'real' or just a result of our misinterpreting measurements of distance and mass for far away objects
Russell
And yes, you are correct that these phenomena may be due to a mis-undertstanding of something - perhaps the theory of gravity itself at very large distance scales. I think the experimental evidence that something is missing in our understanding is very strong now, however, and its not merely an experimental error. .
BC
What are the possibilities of multiple Big Bangs creating multiple parallel universes?
Jon
But - and this has little to do with LH directly - some of the current theories of the origin of our Universe suggest that in fact the Universe has been around for ever. What we see as the big bang was simply something happening to our little piece of spacetime 13.7 billion years ago. There could be multiple "sheets" of spacetime (sometimes called "branes" floating around in an infinitely large multi-dimensional Universe, with everything we see being confined to just one. When these sheets bump into each other, they become very hot and expand, so to anyone living on a sheet today it would look like their Universe began at the point of collision.
BC
If you are able to generate even small Black Holes, will they suck up matter? Do full sized Black Holes draw in invisible matter also? You have an exciting project and I wish you a lot of luck in the operation of your new hardware.
Merlin
BC
In terms off what this could achieve for the humanity in the next 20-30 years. Can this technology change our everyday lives within our lifetimes? Or do you see humanity waiting a little more patiently before our lives are transformed with wormholes and quantum computing?
Lawrence
BC
Do you think that there is a chance of discovering a new fuel source or better ways to create/manage energy during this experiment? I imagine enormous amounts of energy coming out of it...
Dave
BC
I also understand that the purpose of the LHC is to find the elusive God particle. If this was found, what would be the implications for science as we know it, and what would the next steps be?
Darren
BC
What will it mean if the Higgs Boson and other particles are not detected by the LHC?
Alex
BC
Would it be possible to put various simple bacteria into the experiment to see if it survives. We are relatively certain that plant RNA probably evolved during the big bang. Animal DNA on the other hand could not and possibly came from meteorites carrying bacteria from other worlds (Panspermia theory). It would put this idea to bed if it couldn't survive the big bang.
Mick
BC
CERN have been confident in the prediction that there are no major risks associated with the LHC's operation. How robust is this prediction? In particular, how reliant is it upon unsupported theoretical assumptions?
Chris
I have heard that there is a very small possibility that this experiment could go wrong and create a black hole that could be catastrophic, is this actually possible?
Chris
Okay, so how do we know this thing won't make planet Earth implode then?
Stephen
Why would scientists want to risk the planet in this way? It is of course fascinating to want to know how the big bang worked but what is the point if our world was destroyed? Nobody will be around to find out the answer or if the experiment was successful or not. I am not being alarmist I just think that any risk is a risk too much. I and my precious family wish to be around on this beautiful planet for a long while.
Pam
The LHC has absolutely no chance of destroying anything bigger than a few protons, let alone the Earth. This is not based on theoretical assumptions.
It is, of course, essential that all scientific research at the frontiers of knowledge, from genetics to particle physics, is subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny to ensure that our voyages into the unknown do not result in unforeseen, perhaps dangerous outcomes. CERN, and indeed all research establishments, do this routinely and to the satisfaction of their host governments. In the case of the LHC, a report in plain English is available here:
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/Safety-en.html
For the record, the LHC collides particles together at energies far below those naturally occurring in many places in the Universe, including the upper atmosphere of our planet every second of every day. If the LHC can produce micro black holes, for example, then nature is doing it right now by smashing ultra-high energy cosmic ray particles into the Earth directly above our heads with no discernable consequences. The overwhelmingly most likely explanation for our continued existence in the face of this potentially prolific production of black holes is that they aren’t produced at all because there are either no extra dimensions in the Universe, or they aren’t set up right for us to see them. If black holes are being produced, then next on the list of explanations for our continued existence is the broad theoretical consensus that sub-atomic black holes should fizzle back into the Universe very quickly billionths of a second after they are created in a little flash of particles via a process known as Hawking radiation. In other words they evaporate away very quickly indeed. This process, which is perhaps Steven Hawking’s greatest contribution to theoretical physics, is on significantly firmer theoretical ground than the extra dimensions theories required to create the little black holes in the first place. Even if Hawking is wrong, and therefore much of our understanding of modern physics is also wrong, the little black holes would be so tiny that they would rarely come close enough to a particle of matter in the Earth to eat it and grow. And even if you don’t buy any of this, then you can still relax in the knowledge that we have no evidence anywhere in the Universe of a little black hole eating anything – not just Earth but the Sun and planets and every star we can see in the sky including the immensely dense neutron stars and white dwarfs, remnants of ancient Suns that populate the sky in their millions and which because of their density would make great black hole food.
So - the only theoretical bit is in the proposition that you can make little black holes in the first place. From then on, observation tells us that these things either (a) don't exist - the most likely explanation, or (b) exist but do not eat neutron stars and are therefore harmless, probably because they evaporate away very quickly indeed!
I am in fact immensely irritated by the conspiracy theorists who spread this nonsense around and try to scare people. This non-story is symptomatic of a larger mistrust in science, particularly in the US, which includes intelligent design amongst other things. The only serious issue is why so many people who don't have the time or inclination to discover for themselves why this stuff is total crap have to be exposed to the opinions of these half-wits.
BC
May I ask, how do you know that there was a "Big Bang" in the first place, surely it's all just guess work and speculation.
Andrew
What instigated that first big bang? Surely there need be something to have caused it? Is it a cop out to say that first cause is transcendent or just the best possible answer?
Christopher
I watched a program with Stephen Hawkins and he said that before the "Big Bang" there was nothing, if there was nothing, then where did everything come from...?
Andrew
BC
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