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Posted on 03/31/2010 12:41:00 AM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Scientists celebrated at the world's biggest atom smasher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva on Tuesday as they started colliding particles at record energy levels mimicking conditions close to the Big Bang, opening a new era in the quest for the secrets of the universe.
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said it had unleashed the unprecedented bursts of energy on the third attempt, as beams of protons thrust around the 27-kilometre (16.8-mile) accelerator collided at close to the speed of light.
"This is physics in the making, the beginning of a new era, we have collisions at 7 TeV (teralectronvolts)," said Paola Catapano, a CERN scientist and spokeswoman, referring to the record energy levels achieved.
This, the third attempt, triggered collisions among the 20 billion protons in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at 1.06 pm (1106 GMT), creating powerful but microscopic bursts of energy that mimic conditions close to the Big Bang that created the universe.
"We're within a billionth of a second of the Big Bang," CERN spokesman James Gillies told AFP. The new stage, dubbed "First Physics", marks only the beginning of an initial 18- to 24-month series of billions of such collisions.
The LHC, which is located in a tunnel under the Franco-Swiss border, ground to halt with a major breakdown within days of its launch in 2008. But the huge scientific experiment then passed several groundbreaking milestones since it was restarted from repairs last November.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailygalaxy.com ...
I really am a VERY ignorant layman about such things.
I do find it interesting, however.
Much appreciate your kind msgs.
Finally, this stuff is just a long standing interest of mine - I am by no means a scientist or physicist. But the nature of matter, the scope and structure of the universe, are just so ephemeral, so hard to "grasp" at bottom. We think we know what 'stuff" is made of, but the closer we look, the more it disappears. And that IS reality.
Doesn’t the Principle also state that a particle can be in two places at the same time??
I could be wrong, but I don't think that's part of the Heisenburg uncertainty principle. Heisenburg is more in line with classical notions of matter, seeing particles as discrete objects. The reason for the uncertainty is that the act of observing results in either applying or withdrawing energy from the particle.
Funny thing about relativity, the notion of "at the same time" does not exist, except as perceived by any individual observer.
I guess I’ll have to go find my Michio Kaku book and dust it off and see what he says...I think you are correct; it’s all confusing to me and reading Kaku gave me a nightly headache.
I knew we'd get into string theory before this was over.
Heh. That's one that I can't wrap my brain around just yet. Sort of like "quantum theory of time," where there is a certain minimum, indivisible unit of time.
Physical reality is very strange.
All great stuff and I have high hopes for all kinds of new theories and understanding coming from the Hadron accelerator.
Me too. I really like the "hard" physical sciences. I was telling the kids about the scale of arrangement, using as an example the nucleus of an atom being the size of a marble, how far away are the electrons? In textbook drawings, the electrons are in a close orbit, maybe 20 "marbles" distant. But the true scale is that if the nucleus is the size of a marble, the electrons are two MILES away! What we perceive as "solid" materials are mostly nothingness.
Same sort of scale is associated with the solar system, and with the space between galaxies. The distances are beyond comprehension.
thanks wastedyears!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2475410/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2475885/posts
A Tachyon is a hypothetical subatomic particle which moves faster than light. In the language of special relativity, a tachyon is a particle with space-like four-momentum and imaginary proper time. A tachyon is constrained to the space-like portion of the energy-momentum graph. Therefore, it cannot slow down to subluminal speeds.
All that I will add is that "infinity" is a useful construct in mathematics but it does not translate well to physics, introducing contradictions, etc. because space/time is finite.
Ahhh.
Thanks for your helpful insight.
LUB
No matter what kind of particles they succeed in making, they don’t have any spirit around to move it.
What would it be like to have a tachyon smack into a bradyon?
Unless the particle itself is massless (like photons themselves).
bflr
Hmmmm.
I thought they’d decided that photos can have mass in some circumstances.
I might be distorting a faint memory.
I recall hearing of experiments in which light was made to slow down by a factor of 10 or more.
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