New Step Underground in Universe Origins Quest (LHC)

Yahoo! Science ^ | 6/4/03 | Robert Evans - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

GENEVA (Reuters) - Europe's top particle physics research center has taken a major step in its plan to build the world's biggest "particle smasher" which it hopes will eventually unlock the secrets of the origins of the universe.

On Wednesday it inaugurated a huge bottle-shaped vault which will house Atlas, an enormous detector of the micro-items of matter that make up life, the universe and everything.

Atlas, standing as high as a four-story building and twice as long, will almost fill the cavern, cut into rock beneath meadowland straddling the Swiss-French border outside Geneva.

The giant piece of machinery will form a central part of a "how things began" program at the multi-nation center -- CERN (news - web sites), the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The completed particle accelerator, which is due to start up in 2007, aims to recreate the conditions that existed within less than a billionth of a second after the "Big Bang" explosion -- probably around 15 billion years ago -- that created the known universe.

Scientists say this will give a much clearer view of how this created galaxies, planets -- and the life that so far is only known to exist on Earth.

To carry it out, CERN is building the world's largest scientific instrument -- the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC -- to operate in a 17-mile circular tunnel 225 feet down between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains.

One of its main goals will be finally to catch the so-far theoretical "Higgs boson" that has eluded scientists at CERN and its U.S. counterpart Fermilab for nearly two decades.

The LHC replaces an earlier decade-long experiment known as the LEP, now dismantled, which two years ago came tantalisingly close to catching a glimpse of the Higgs boson that researchers believe gives matter its weight.

Like the LEP, but many times more powerful, the LHC will project particles of matter at vast speeds in opposite directions around the tunnel, and the 7,000 ton Atlas and another detector will record what happens when they collide.

Some 2,000 scientists from 150 research laboratories in 34 countries are involved in the some $8 billion LHC project -- also financially backed by the United States which 10 years ago abandoned an even larger one for cost reasons.

CERN, founded 50 years ago, has 20 European member states who largely finance it, but the European Commission (news - web sites), India, Israel, Japan, Russia, the United States and Turkey have observer status -- and contribute to -- the body.

[LiteKeeper]

it hopes will eventually unlock the secrets of the origins of the universe.

I can save them lots of $$s..."In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

[NormsRevenge]

Just what some scientists don't want to hear. ;-)

[PatrickHenry]

PING. [This ping list is for the evolution side of evolution threads, and sometimes for other science topics. FReepmail me to be added or dropped.]

[VadeRetro]

... life, the universe and everything.

That again!

[farmfriend]

Happy reading my friend.

[Aric2000]

It's about fricking time, when Bush 41 cut the funding to the original I got a little miffed, but hopefully this one will stay funded.

[RightWhale]

a central part of a "how things began" program

Maybe a central part of getting a little closer to "how things began." They'll never get to the first instant. Just closer.

[RightWhale]

when Bush 41 cut the funding to the original

Yes, same here, and I was actually working on the proposal. Short-sighted = Washington DC

[Aric2000]

Ah, yes, that one, hey, goddidit, you DON'T NEED TO KNOW ANYTHING ELSE!!!

So cut the funding, I don't care, you're wasting your time and money on something that we already know the answer to.

GODDIDIT, and that's ALL we need to know.

I love that logic.

Religion, opiate for the masses, we know EVERYTHING, because the bible tells us so.

That is hilarious!!

[PatrickHenry]

CERN, founded 50 years ago, has 20 European member states who largely finance it, but the European Commission, India, Israel, Japan, Russia, the United States and Turkey have observer status -- and contribute to -- the body.

No Arab countries? No African countries? None from Central or South America? How unfair!

[Aric2000]

This machine has so many possibilities, not just for getting closer to the big bang, but for also other physics experiments.

It is supposed to be the largest and best collider ever created, I am hoping to one day see one of these things in orbit, where that pesky gravity won't be a problem.

[RightWhale]

one of these things in orbit

Excellent!

[AndrewC]

which two years ago came tantalisingly close to catching a glimpse of the Higgs boson ...

A unicorn got in the way.

[Aric2000]

You seem to be the one to ask this of, does gravity create a problem with these experiments? I have assumed that it does. Those assumptions can be a pain sometimes.

As well as the fact, without gravity, a collider could be pretty much as big as we can technologically build it.

[Physicist]

I can save them lots of $$s..."In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."

Very good. Now tell me the supersymmetry breaking parameters, the electroweak cutoff scale, the mass of the Higgs boson, the CKM matrix parameters...

[Physicist]

Atlas, an enormous detector of the micro-items of matter that make up life, the universe and everything.

Penn is a major ATLAS collaborator. I'm not in that group, myself, but I can tell you it's a sharp bunch of guys.

[Physicist]

I am hoping to one day see one of these things in orbit, where that pesky gravity won't be a problem.

Gravity's not much of a problem for a particle accelerator. Funding is the problem.

[Aric2000]

Thank you physicist, you answered the question before you even read it.

I think that you are psychic!! LOL

Would an orbital collider be advantageous?

[Physicist]

It's about fricking time, when Bush 41 cut the funding to the original I got a little miffed, but hopefully this one will stay funded.

Well, this isn't our accelerator, so unstable funding is less of a problem.

If you're referring to the SSC, Bush 41 didn't cut the funding. Congress cut the funding in October, 1993.