World's Biggest Gun Set to Fire September 2008

Will It Unlock Physic's Deepest Secrets or Destroy Earth?

Aug 15, 2008

Straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, 50 meters underground and an astonishing 17 miles long; the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is easily the World's biggest gun.

What is the LHC?

The LHC is a massive particle accelerator built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). When activated it will accelerate two beams of high energy protons to 99.9% the speed of light and smash them into each other. To keep the speeding matter on course as it makes each 17 mile revolution in 90 millionths of a second the LHC is lined with 1600 magnets, super cooled with liquid helium and weighing 27 tons. When the collision occurs it will create conditions very similar to those existing nano-seconds after the Big Bang occurred.

Why recreate the Big Bang?

Modern particle physics is based on a theory known as the Standard Model. The Standard Model explains the properties of particles at the atomic level, as Albert Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity explains the properties of matter on the macro level.

The Standard Model predicts that the energy released at the moment of the Big Bang created and destroyed matter that is inherent for the existence of the physical world as it exists today and the key to understanding it. By recreating the Big Bang scientists hope to detect this missing matter and validate that which the Standard Model predicts.

Most significant among the missing matter physicists hope to detect is the elusive Higgs Boson. Discovery of the Higgs Boson may be the key to understanding why elementary particles acquire mass, a question that has puzzle physicists for centuries. The leading theory explaining why particles acquire mass is the Higgs Theory. It theorizes that particles acquire mass as a result of passing through a quantum field, the Higgs Field.

If this field exists, like all quantum fields discovered to date, it should be accompanied by a unique fundamental particle, the Higgs Boson.

It is very possible that the Higgs Boson will not be detected at all. This may be because it doesn’t exist or because it will require a larger release of energy that the LHC simply can’t produce. Proving or disproving the existence of the Higgs Boson is imperative to the future of particle physics. Proving decisively that it does not exist, while disappointing, would still be a positive step. Physicists could then confidently explore new or other existing theories that might explain where particles get mass.

In addition to detecting the Higgs Boson physicists hope that other hypothetical particles might be detected. These include dark matter, dark energy, magnetic monopoles, micro black holes, strangletes and supersymmetrical particles. Evidence supporting the existence of new dimensions and Superstring Theory are other possibilities.

Could the LHC destroy Earth?

Not all physicists are excited about turning the LHC on however. Some have expressed concern that black holes or strangletes, could be created and destroy earth.

Walter Wagner is one physicist who fears these potential consequences. He filed a lawsuit trying to halt CERN from firing the LHC. Wagner claims that safety reports by CERN have “major flaws”.

Wagner is not alone. Astrophysicist Martin Rees, currently master of Trinity College, Cambridge, warns that the odds of a major cataclysm are actually about 1 in 50 million, three times more likely than winning the Powerball Jackpot.

CERN has been concerned that misleading information has been circulated on the net concerning the LHC and have compiled a list of recommended sources. Despite what critics have charged, CERN has announced the LHC will fire the first protons on September 10, 2008.

The copyright of the article World's Biggest Gun Set to Fire September 2008 in Particle Physics is owned by Bobby Brown. Permission to republish World's Biggest Gun Set to Fire September 2008 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.