In Search of the "God Particle"

Spanning across the lands of France and Switzerland, 100 meters deep within the earth, sits the world's biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collide (LHC). This enormous scientific instrument “speeds up and increases the energy of a beam of particles by generating electric fields that accelerate the particles, and magnetic fields that steer and focus them," allowing physicists to study their vast characteristics in a controlled environment.
The main purpose of the LHC is to recreate the conditions directly after the Big Bang. Physicists will accelerate subatomic particles known as 'hadrons' (in other terms, protons or lead ions) around the circular formation of the LHC and cause them to collide at extremely high speeds. Physicists hope that the information gathered from these collisions can be used to test or validate the limitations the Standard Model, the current school of thought for particle physics. It is theorized that the results garnered from the LHC will provide evidence of the Higgs Boson Theory, known popularly as the “God-Particle”- a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model.
Given the vary nature of the LHC and its creators' desire to understand and utilize the very foundations of life itself, the project has come under heavy scrutiny. Lawsuits stemming from the belief that the collisions made in the LHC would cause small, yet massive black holes that would destroy the universe have been speculated. Cosmic rays, microscopic black holes, strangelets, and vacuum bubbles are a few of the worries that are floating around the existence of the LHC. Naturally with change, there does come some reproach. The purpose behind the LHC is the desire to dream beyond the known paradigm and make the unknown known.
Creative Commons Images via Flickr
"The Large Hadron Collider" by ImageEditor
"Desent" by dillvion
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The truth is that they
The truth is that they really dont know what they are doing. See, science for the most part learns by trial and error: Lets do this, and see what happens! Ooooops, no, that didnt work! or, yes! we got it!
I dont think it is a good idea to try that approach when the stakes are so high. I believe it is absolutely possible that they might blow us into oblivion before we realize it.
It's like with nuclear reactors! Do you know how unsafe these plants are? There have been enough near-melt-downs to freak me out.
Sure, let's try to break these particles that contain pretty much the universe's energy enclosed in such a fragile shell...
LHC disaster.
Zealous Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka God) Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments hoping to prove a theory when urgent tangible problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.
Particle physicists have run out of ideas and are at a dead end forcing them to take reckless chances with more and more powerful and costly machines to create new and never-seen-before, unstable and unknown matter while Astrophysicists, on the other hand, are advancing science and knowledge on a daily basis making new discoveries in these same areas by observing the universe, not experimenting with it and with your life.
The LHC is a dangerous gamble as CERN physicist Alvaro De Rújula in the BBC LHC documentary, 'The Six Billion Dollar Experiment', incredibly admits quote, "Will we find the Higgs particle at the LHC? That, of course, is the question. And the answer is, science is what we do when we don't know what we're doing." And CERN spokesmodel Brian Cox follows with this stunning quote, "the LHC is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown."
The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." Again, this is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing' you could not be more wrong. Some people think similarly about medical Dr.s but consider this by way of comparison and example from JAMA: "A recent Institute of Medicine report quoted rates estimating that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in US hospitals." The second part of the CERN quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "...as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him. Reason and common sense will tell you that the risks far outweigh any potential(as CERN physicists themselves say) benefits.
This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
Find out more about that "stuff" below;
http://www.SaneScience.org/
http://www.LHCFacts.org
http://www.risk-evaluation-forum.org/anon1.htm
http://www.lhcdefense.org/
http://www.lhcconcerns.com
Popular Mechanics - "World's Biggest Science Project Aims to Unlock 'God Particle'" - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4216588.html"
Science
...the longest, most sustained, concentrated, and clear meditation into the nature of Reality.
Where nothing is taken for granted, where reality is continuously tested by repeat experiment.
Where perception is doubted, and checked.
Instruments created for the refinement of the senses; Undefiled by wishful thinking. Mental discipline.
The Quest for Truth.
I do not understand the fear
So, many of you have said things to the degree of 'science is what happens when scientists do when they don't know what they are doing'.
Alright.
However, I would pose this: Girolamo Fracastoro and others before him, were thought to be mad by many of his peers as well as the public for posing that tiny little living organisms where the cause of disease rather then spirit possesion and the evil eye.
True, we don't know what will come from the LHC, but to prevent the possibility of the knowledge is sheer silliness!
Be open to change, is that not the reason why we are here?
I remember having a
I remember having a conversation with my brother, around the time "Dolly" the sheep was cloned. While I raved about cans of worms and Pandora's Boxes, he had a different perspective. "Wouldn't it be the logical progression of an intelligent race to hone its intelligence to the point that self-creation is possible? Wouldn't that be the ultimate aim?"
Now, I don't know if I can agree with that or not on an ethical level. However, any attempts to limit humanity's quest for knowledge will only succeed for so long. Curiosity and the quest for knowledge are a part of who we are, and are as much wrapped up in dangerous and glorious possibilities as anything else.
There are a million things that could end our residence on this planet in the near future. But unlike global warming, the poisoning of crops, resource depletion and nuclear proliferation, the LHC represents a possible danger that could reap many benefits.
time seepage
the quest for Higgs boson and a determination of its mass in order to verify CP violation and explain why the universe is mostly matter rather than an equal mix of matter and antimatter might have some strange although not necessarly devestating consequences including random causality path jumps in conciousness due to the tachyonic nature of the Higgs Boson and these effects would be felt prior to but not after its creation. The actual mechanism of the effect is due to the negative mass and therefor faster than light aspect of the field produced by the particle and some possible link between this and the etherical akashic matrix that conciousness seems to vibrate off. If the matter composing DNA has programmed in it linked particles and somehow communcates with the universe through these nonspaciotemporally constrained links then perceived reality could be affected by producing and measuring aspects of the Higg's Boson the results of which could be anything or nothing...Eat Me! Drink Me! We're all Alice colorblind in the Pepsi Matrix red pill, blue pill challenge.The destruction of the planet by microblackholes is however bogus bs pandered by pseudoscientific fruitcakes. Risk of annihilation is not increased however possibilty of weirdness remains.
Following the ideas of [9], we will now discuss the computation of the tachyon potential. For
N = 1 we write the discrete modes as:
1 = (1)
0 (1)
0 + (1)
1 (1)
1 + (1)
2 (1)
2 + (1)
3 (1)
3 + (1)
4 (1)
4 ,
2 = (2)
0 (2)
0 + (2)
1 (2)
1 + (2)
2 (2)
2 + (2)
3 (2)
3 + (2)
4 (2)
4 + (2)
5 (2)
5 ,
aµ = (µ)
0 (µ)
0 + (µ)
1 (µ)
1 + (µ)
2 (µ)
2 ,
az = (2)
0 (z)
0 + (2)
1 (z)
1 + (2)
2 (z)
2 + (2)
3 (z)
3 + (2)
4 (z)
4 + (2)
5 (z)
5 , (19)
8
where we have identified (2)
i (z)
i , i = 0, .., 5, since the two channels are linked.
For N = 2, we have
1 = (1)
0 (1)
0 + (1)
1 (1)
1 + (1)
2 (1)
2 + (1)
3 (1)
3 + (1)
4 (1)
4 ,
2 = (2)
0 (2)
0 + (2)
1 (2)
1 + (2)
2 (2)
2 + (2)
3 (2)
3 + (2)
4 (2)
4 + (2)
5 (2)
5 + (2)
6 (2)
6 + (2)
7 (2)
7
+ (2)
8 (2)
8 + (2)
9 (2)
9 ,
aµ = (µ)
0 (µ)
0 + (µ)
1 (µ)
1 + (µ)
2 (µ)
2 + (µ)
3 (µ)
3 + (µ)
4 (µ)
4 ,
az = (2)
0 (z)
0 + (2)
1 (z)
1 + (2)
2 (z)
2 + (2)
3 (z)
3 + (2)
4 (z)
4 + (2)
5 (z)
5 + (2)
6 (z)
6 + (2)
7 (z)
7
+ (2)
8 (z)
8 + (2)
9 (z)
9 , (20)
where -similar to N = 1- we have identified (2)
i (z)
i , i = 0, .., 9.
In the following 1 will not contribute since none of the normal modes is both antiperiodic
and negative. For aµ all modes are positive and are thus also not of interest for us.
For 2 (respectively az) only the (2)
1 mode will contribute. After substituting the normal
mode expansion into (10) and integrating out all modes over a period 2K(k)/b(k) we thus
obtain the following effective action for the Dp-brane:
Sp = Z dp+1y −Tp −
1
2
@µ(2)
1 (y)@µ(2)
1 (y) − V () (21)
with Tp representing the tension of the Dp-brane and the effective potential:
V () =
1
2 h−!2
1(2)
1 − B(k)((2)
1 )4i , B(k) =
2K(k)/b(k)
Z0
4 4(′)4 + 2(′)2 2 +
!2
1
2 dz ,
(22)
where the prime denotes the derivative with respect to z. !2
1 = −2kb(k)2 is the negative
mode of the sphaleron, while B(k) depends on k. is the normalization of the corresponding
eigenvector.
We have used here the normalisation and orthogonality of the eigenfunctions:
2K(k)/b(k)
Z0
dz n(z) m(z) = n,m ,
2K(k)/b(k)
Z0
dz n(z)m(z) = n,m . (23)
For tachyon condensation we require - following Sen’s conjecture - that the contribution from
the tachyon potential exactly cancels the brane tension at the critical point ∗ :
Tp + V (∗) = 0 .
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/0509/0509201v1.pdf
Where in the world did you get this?
From "including random causality path jumps" to "the Pepsi Matrix red pill, blue pill challenge" of your post is complete fantasy. It would have made no more sense had you theorized that the giant invisible spaghetti monster who's noodley appendages are intertwined with each partcle in the universe will become confused by our probing of the microcosm, which in turn will cause him to get in a tangle ultimately changing the fabric of reality as we know it.
At least the last part about micro blackholes not being a threat is true.
bioaspects
Please everyone, stop
Please everyone, stop getting your titties in a twist about the LHC.
Collision events which are many times stronger than those that will be caused at the LHC have been happening in the earths upper atmosphere for that last few billion years due to cosmic rays. The only difference at the LHC is that we will be studying those collisions.
as you say...
when a tree falls in the forest and no one is there.,,
The observer affect is
The observer affect is entirely unrelated to this experiment.
Besides, even if it was it's really not all that mysterious. Effectively when you want to measure some attribute of a particle you need to use another particle to do it, which as a side affect changes the state of the particle being observed.
It's as if you have a snooker ball rolling across a table but the only way you can observe it is by bouncing another ball off it, so you roll this other ball at the first one and then measure the change in it's speed after the collision and from that calculate the initial speed of the other ball. However the side effect of doing this is that the first ball has now been knocked off its path.
Do you understand how this has nothing to do with reality?
data has everything to do w/ reality
Indeed it is a worthwhile
Indeed it is a worthwhile pursuit, but fantasizing is not.
It seems you are not a physicist and it's understandable that you are not able to tell the difference between accepted and fantastical physics. But I will say that you should check your source!
I'm not sure where your getting your information, I can tell you it certainly isn't a scientist nor is it from the link you gave. That paper is calculating the charge of a Higg's particle from two theorized possibilities of it's mass ratio.
Also space time didn't exist 13.73 billion years ago (give or take 250mill) that is the date of the big bang, the date that spacetime came into existence. Secondly the Higg's boson is, according to the standard model, the particle responsible for mass. Thus every single atom in the universe contains Higg's bosons.
uh that was my point...
'accepted' physics
"accepted and fantastical physics" have never been stable ctaegories (except for the scientific orthodoxy of the day whose reputations and careers are invested in maintaining the 'accepted' one). Yes, certain scientists who are now considered genuises were thought mad at the time. In many cases they were both mad and genuises and have unleashed much suffering on the world. Other genuises have given us atomic bombs whilst others hailed heroin as a drug to cure the sick where instead it now kills 1000's of people every year whilst simultaneously funding global criminal organizations.
As has been demonstrated throughout recent history
physicists do not have a monpoly on common sense.
And the detractors of the Collider experiment are not all lunatics. I first heard about it some years ago from Martin Rees who is one of the most respected scientists in Europe.
His point is that if the potential risk is 'destruction of our world' and the benefit is the satisfaction of physicists intellectual curiosity then a diagnosis of 'highly unlikely' is NOT good enough.
I am sick of all the pseudo religious language being invoked by a compliant media about 'the great quest for truth' this diabolical machine represents. Bollocks. This is about hubris and reputations and money. They even seem to have compiled a batch of anodyne TV friendly scientists with nice hair and teeth to roll out the propaganda.
still its too late now. I expect we'll probably get lucky with this arrogant roll of the dice - until the next one...
And i will be viewed as a science hating luddite for saying all this by some or have condescension poured on me by those who have strings of numbers at their disposal. so be it.
s
yep
Hackers attack LHC
there's no reason why the nuts and bolts should be affected...
hello past?
Scientist gone Wild
http://listverse.com/science/top-10-scientists-killed-or-injured-by-their-experiments
I enjoyed the link
freaking a.
i read about this kind of in hawking on Eienstein. i dont think hawking generally liked the idea- though i cant remember much of what i have read of that massive book.
the think that bugs me the most is scientists approaching existance of all things with math and machinery.
what ever happened to sheer observation? i guess after so long the repercusion is to well experiment.
i think that its considerably ignornant to hope and think that you have the solution and are willing to one uncover what we have all been waiting for, two create black holes, three obliverate humanity into a black hole, or even make particles and subparticals toxic and radioactive. i guess we wont know until it happens. whatever it may be. lucky us.