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LHC ATLAS detector
Yesterday, 10 September 2008, after almost two decades of preparation and development, the first beam in Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was successfully steered around 27 kilometers, in the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.
“We can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.”
LHC project leader Lyn Evans
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s most powerful and complex particle accelerator and also the largest scientific machine ever created.
A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric fields to boost particles to high speeds and is used to study the smallest known particles.
Built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) the LHC is located at the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, and it was tested successfully for the first time yesterday, 10 September. Over eight thousand physicists from over eighty-five countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories participate in the LHC project. The total cost of the project is expected to be around 6 billion € / 8 billion USD.
LHC will be officially revealed on 21 October 2008 and only after this date, high-energy collisions experiments will take place.
“The LHC is a discovery machine”
CERN Director General Robert Aymar
The main purpose of the LHC, is to create high energy collisions between opposing beams of protons. Doing this, will allow the scientists to confirm, or not, the existence of the Higgs Boson (also known as “God Particle”), which is the only Standard Model particle not yet observed, and it is believed to be responsible for the existence of mass. LHC will be used by the scientists to recreate the initial conditions of the creation of the universe, just after the Big Bang.
“As some might say: ‘One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for mankind!’ ”
Nigel S. Lockyer, Director of Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory
LHC is enclosed in a circular tunnel with 27 kilometers, constructed between 1983 and 1988, and it contains two contiguous parallel beam pipes, each containing a proton beam, which travel in opposite directions. A total of 1600 superconducting magnets are installed to keep the beams on their circular paths and focused, maximizing the chances of collisions between the particles. The protons total collision energy will round the 14 TeV, which will allow them to move practically at the speed of light. Each proton will take no longer than 90 microseconds to travel once around the 27 kilometer tunnel.
Before entering the main accelerator, the particles are previously prepared by a series of systems to increase their energy. They are then inserted into the main tunnel, which takes about 20 minutes. The protons are accumulated inside the tunnel and stored for 10 to 24 hours while collisions occur.
As said before, LHC will allow us to know more about the universe and its creation and possibly to answer questions not only like why do objects have mass, but also questions related with gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear forces, Supersymmetry, dark matter and dark energy, and also questions regarding extra dimensions.
“Its research programme has the potential to change our view of the Universe profoundly, continuing a tradition of human curiosity that’s as old as mankind itself.”
CERN Director General Robert Aymar
So what will happen? There are many theories and expectations as to what will result from the collisions. However, one thing is certain for the scientists: a new world of physics, knowledge, exploration and new possibilities will emerge from the LHC.
What about safety? Some fear that the LHC will provoke the end of the world since some believe that there is the possibility of the creation of black holes during the collisions, which might ‘swallow’ the entire planet as well as our solar system. Is this a fact? Well, the consensus in the scientific community is that there is no basis for any believable threat from the LHC particle collisions, and so the project will continue and the collisions will occur.
But what if they’re wrong? Well…I guess that’s something we will find out pretty soon.
“CERN is to be especially congratulated for bringing the world together to embark on such an incredible adventure.”
Nigel S. Lockyer, Director of Canada’s TRIUMF laboratory
“I convey my deepest admiration to all the scientists and wish them all the success for their research for peaceful development of scientific progress.”
United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon
