Thread: The Large Hadron Collider

I find it odd that there is a rap, but I'm glad that the video has lead to a discussion of science in general.

For about two and a half years, I was working with simulation data from the LHC at FermiLab and by remotely accessing their computers from my university. It was quite interesting for the first year and a half or so, but later turned into a big software/bugtesting project and I subsquently gave up the work. (I'll not go into details about that because that would be in extremely poor taste.) But as a result, I know a fair bit about the accelerators at Fermi and CERN, as well as how the scientists work and what they are looking for.

I feel it is worth mentioning that black holes do form inside the accelerators, but since black holes are so widely misunderstood, this fact has aroused some concert. Black holes decay at a rate which is dependent on their mass; I don't have the equation on hand, otherwise I'd be happy to post it. As a result, the black holes that are created in the accelerators pose absolutely no threat to anybody. It is also worth mentioning that black holes are formed in out atmosphere by high energy particles colliding with the atmosphere, though those black holes don't seem to receive much press. Examining particles created from high energy collisions in the atmosphere was a precursor to man-made accelerators, and a number of useful experiments can still be performed with such observations. Not that I would consider it useful, but in an advanced laboratory course I took, one of the available experiments involved measuring the lifetime of the muons created by cosmic rays.

I would also like to add in that there have been quite a few spin-off technologies that have been developed from accelerators, most notably the microwave. There is also an area at FermiLab that treats cancer with neutrons.

Oh, one other thing; there are highly active (radioactive, that is) areas around any non-linear accelerator (I would say all accelerators, but I'm only certain about non-linear ones). The main area is where they "dump" the "beam" in case anything should go wrong. The beam is what the stream of particles going around inside the accelerator is called. Dumping is exactly what it sounds like; the beam is forced out of it's normal path and into the ground in a gives spot. An example of something that could go wrong: the beam somehow moves out of it's intended path and begins to run into any of the various things just outside its path (there are tons of electronics, magnets, cooling elements etc). If you think one bad stroke on a hone is bad, imagine a stream of particles upwards of 99% of the speed of the light even just grazing any material.

Oh, one more thing. Now that I've started watching the "rap," it's nice to see that my work is referenced, though I don't really want to say what it was, due to the above bit about bug-testing.

99.9999991% of the speed of light is the target speed for the hadron "bunches." (for those who don't know and are impressed by big numbers)

As for applicable scientific advancements; the LHC should expand our understanding of anti-matter which could advance medical imaging technologies. A PET scan uses positrons (anti-electrons) to make a 3-D map of some part of the body that needs to be inspected, so more sophisticated uses for anti-matter could be just as beneficial.

Wow, there's a ton of people here who actually know what the hell the LHC does. I know a little, but nothing intimate like you eggheads

Originally Posted by Quick Orange

Wow, there's a ton of people here who actually know what the hell the LHC does. I know a little, but nothing intimate like you eggheads

I won't make any pretenses, I'm an amateur egghead at best.

Holli4pirating, on the other hand, seems to be the real deal.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

99.9999991% of the speed of light is the target speed for the hadron "bunches." (for those who don't know and are impressed by big numbers)

As for applicable scientific advancements; the LHC should expand our understanding of anti-matter which could advance medical imaging technologies. A PET scan uses positrons (anti-electrons) to make a 3-D map of some part of the body that needs to be inspected, so more sophisticated uses for anti-matter could be just as beneficial.

I'm not really sure that our knowledge of anti-matter will be enhanced; at this point two of the largest interests are dark matter and "new physics," which is anything outside the Standard Model. Oh yea, and the Higgs boson...how could I forget that.

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

I won't make any pretenses, I'm an amateur egghead at best.

Holli4pirating, on the other hand, seems to be the real deal.

I suppose my head is a bit egg-shaped... In all honesty, I love the theory part and I hate the math. But I guess that's why I was in experimental physics and not theoretical

Unfortunately, I'm either not bright enough for physics grad school, or perhaps I just lack the motivation. Either way, I entered college knowing that I wanted to teach high school physics, so I never had any intention of entering a physics grad school; let alone pursuing a research or theoretical physics career.

But if anyone is interested in some reading that is on the accessible side, I'd be happy to make some recommendations.

In college, theoretical physics was my favorite class and I scored the all time high on the final exams.
It was also a hobby then, and I once solved the QT equations for finding the shape of the p orbital of an electron. I was pretty proud of this. I tried setting up the equations for the d orbital but that was too complex to consider solving during my summer holiday.

Well, watching the live feed on BBC is a strange mix -- like getting excited whilst watching paint dry. But it's pretty amazing as of a couple of minutes ago they've confirmed the LHC works -- the beam has gone around fully in both directions. Apparently they've achieved twice as much as they expected in a day.

So I guess we'll all be history by the end of the week when the God particles clump together and pull us all through our own kazoos?

It's been nice knowing you fine gentlemen.

So how do they create a detector to look for something that they do not know if it even exists?

Photons-some sort of photonic detector

Heat- thermal detector

Higgs boson-????

Higgs boson detector

I guess there is just so much money floating around that the LHC seemed like a good project to spend some of it on