After months of delays and technical difficulties the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider, is fully functional and has started to generate its first set of results. The so-called “Big Bang machine” is supposed to answer some of the most fundamental questions in physics and astronomy, as well as probing into some of the mysteries of the universe.
Scientists are expecting this mammoth machine to detect the Higgs boson, an elusive particle which is is thought to give rise to masses in the quantum world, to create mini-black holes which could be portals to parallel universes, and to re-create energy conditions which existed micro-seconds after the Big Bang. (Kaku, 2005)
What is the LHC?
The Large Hadron Collider is the world’s largest particle accelerator and also the most expensive scientific machine. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and cost almost 10 billion dollars. The LHC consists of a 27 kilometer long tunnel located between the French and Swiss borders. Opposing particle beams circulate the tunnel propelled by 1,600 superconducting magnets which generate a field of up to 8 teslas, or 160,000 times the Earth’s magnetic field.
In the tunnel, the particle beams are accelerated to 99.99999 percent the speed of light until they collide with each other, generating a myriad of subatomic particles which are analyzed by massive detectors. (Kaku, 2005)
The LHC and the Hunt for the Higgs Boson
One of the main aims of the Large Hadron Collider is to detect the Higgs boson, a particle believed to generate a field which interacts with other specific particles, thus determining why some, like the photon, have no mass, while others, like electrons and quarks, do. The Higgs boson is thought to be too heavy to be generated by other particle accelerators, which is why the HLC was designed to produce such high energy levels.
The LHC, the Big Bang, and Some of the Mysteries of the Universe
Another goal of the LHC is to re-create conditions that have only existed microseconds after the Big Bang. Apparently, the Big Bang originally consisted of an extremely hot “soup” of sub-atomic particles, mainly gluons and quarks, before it began its expansion. The particle beam collisions occurring in the Large Hadron Collider should be able to generate a quark and gluon plasma from lead nuclei, thus re-creating conditions that have not been seen since the Big Bang itself. This would give physicists a chance to understand some of the mysteries of the universe and why it behaves the way it does.
The LHC and Black Holes
Some scientists believe that the LHC might be capable of generating mini-black holes. The energy levels needed to generate black holes are greater than the ones that any particle accelerator, including the Large Hadron Collider, is capable to attain; however, some believe that if a parallel universe exists within an extremely close distance to our universe, the necessary energy levels are reduced and mini-black holes, believed to be “portals” to parallel universes, could be created. (Kaku, 2005) Some have expressed concern that these mini-black holes could swallow up our whole planet; however, physicists have determined that they would be highly unstable and would only exist for micro-seconds.
First Results Generated by the LHC - The Hunt for the Higgs Boson Begins
After only three months of successful operation, the LHC has yielded a first set of results. A University of Toronto team examined over 200 million proton particle beam collisions in order to look for resulting particles thought to be heavier than ordinary matter. The team failed to find any of these “excited quarks” and thus gave some more evidence towards the Standard Model, which explains the behaviour and interactions between elementary particles, such as quarks, gluons and the theorized Higgs boson.
Now that the Large Hadron Collider is fully operational, scientists are expecting a steady flow of results to come in the next years. Perhaps some of these experiments involving particle beam collisions will someday answer some fundamental questions about the mysteries of the universe, the Big Bang theory, black holes, and the existence of parallel universes.
References
Kaku, M., 2005, Parallel Worlds, Penguin Books, England, 77-80, 268-270.
E! Science News, First Results From Large Hadron Collider Announced, accessed August 21, 2010.
Andres Hernandez - Andres Hernandez-Rodriguez is a chemical engineer, born in Mexico City in 1979. He worked for a chemical products company as a Research ...
