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This morning, at 3 a.m. EST, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), flipped the switch and circulated the first proton beam around the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The LHC, for those of you that have been hiding on Mars, in a cave, with your fingers in your ears, is the world’s largest particle accelerator (the underground circular tunnel its housed in has a circumference of 17 miles and straddles the border between Switzerland and France, crossing it at four points). By colliding opposing beams of protons, CERN scientists intend to fill in the gaps that currently exist in the Standard Model, re-create the conditions that existed an instant after the big bang and get their hands on the Higgs Boson, the only particle predicted by the Standard Model that hasn’t been found.
The idea of a ginormous particle accelerator knocking protons into each other at nearly the speed of light has some people…concerned. Despite the analysis performed by the LHC Safety Study Group, their conclusion that the LHC posed no conceivable threat, a second review by the LHC Safety Assessment Group and their conclusion that the LHC wasn’t dangerous, two lawsuits, one in the U.S. and one in Europe, have been filed to keep the hadrons from colliding (if you were wondering, a hadron is bound group of quarks, and also really easy to misspell as hardon).
What are these people so worried about? Well, just the little matter of doomsday…
Back in (micro) Black (holes)
Much of the legal challenge to the LHC revolves around the slim chance that two quarks, one from each proton beam zipping around the collider, both endowed with immense energy inherited from the protons that contain them, could get too close to each other, collapse under their own gravitational interaction and create a small black hole. That gravitational interaction, many physicists have noted, needs to be really strong, though. For any scenario where a black hole pops up in the LHC we’d have to assume the existence of extra dimensions accessible to gravitons (the hypothetical particles that mediate the force of gravity), but not the other particles at play in the collider.
A planet-eating (or even a Switzerland-eating) black hole being created by the LHC would be, in a word, a long-shot. We’ve got room for error, though. The same reasoning that suggests creating black holes is possible also says that those black holes will evaporate because of a process called Hawking radiation. As much as black holes suck, they also radiate some energy out. The intensity of this radiation is determined by the temperature of the black hole, which is inversely proportional to its mass, so the very tiny black holes that the LHC might maybe manage to create would only be there for a fraction of a second before evaporating.
Keeping Proton Beams in Line
Even if a black hole comes and goes in the blink of an eye, the LHC is still a serious piece of machinery. During operation, the two proton beams will carry a total energy of 724 megajoules, equivalent to the energy of 380 pounds of TNT detonating. But it gets better! The magnets that keep the proton beams on their path during experiments will have a total stored energy of 10 gigajoules. That’s the same amount of energy created by 2.4 tons of TNT going off.
With that much energy in one place, even small malfunction could be disastrous. Once the particles are set loose on their demolition derby, is there any way to shutdown the whole operation if there’s a technical problem?
Well, duh. CERN spent almost two decades devising a system of fail-safes for the collider. The longer the proton beams whip around the track, the greater the chance that they’ll become unstable, so CERN does the same thing to the beams that the nuns did to me in grade school: make them stand in the corner and think about what they’ve done.
When its time to replace the beams, the old ones are deflected by “kicker” magnets out of their circular path and steered by “septum” magnets (if you’re thinking that the LHC is the world’s largest collection of weird magnets, you’re wrong; that would be my grandmother’s fridge) into absorbers called beam dump blocks.
On its way to the dump block, the beam passes through – you guessed it – more magnets, which fan the protons out and lower the beam’s intensity. Inside the beam dump cavern is the block, a 10-ton, 27-foot long graphite cylinder encased in steel and concrete. Quite a roadblock, but still easy enough for the proton beam to eat through, so CERN engineered things so that the beam is “scanned” onto the cylinder in a pattern instead of hitting it at just one point with full strength.
Comments (25)
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Gosh, it’s just a big atom smasher, and the possibility of something dangerous to happen is too small for that something to happen ;) If it would have been real risk, scientists would inform us, or take measures against it, or, after all, never would have thought of taking this idea to reality. So stop worrying, listen to common sense and do not let this rumor by fools take over your mind. There are very little people, who really believe it’s dangerous – http://www.votetheday.com/polls/worlds-largest-particle-accelerator-experiment-214/, but looks like panic is a very hazardous thing, ha?
posted by votetheday.com on 9-10-2008 at 10:06 am
To Err is Human, to really screw up you need a computer AND a supercollider…w
posted by RobertSeattle on 9-10-2008 at 10:11 am
I think this is the coolest piece of scientific machinery ever!
My 12yr old daughter summed up the black hole question pretty neatly:
“A black hole would be bad…but AWESOME!!”
posted by ArtF on 9-10-2008 at 11:21 am
How cool is this!! I wish someone could but some kind of video representation of this on Youtube. Fascinating stuff
posted by JaneM on 9-10-2008 at 11:39 am
Have you seen the rap about this thing? It’s pretty good and pretty funny.
Honestly, if the doomsday scenario occured, would we really even know? I mean if they make the “God particle” and trigger another creation of the universe, my guess is that in the short amount of time the Second Big Bang occured, none of us would even “know” what happened. Stop being so afraid to die…you won’t even know when that happens either so just have fun and chase butterflies!
posted by Mike James on 9-10-2008 at 12:17 pm
There is a video on YouTube of a computer animated recreation of what would happen if a black hole is created. It’s kind of terrifying, actually.
posted by Codius on 9-10-2008 at 12:24 pm
In the immortal words of Douglas Adams:
“Anything that happens, happens.
Anthing that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.”
posted by Amauriel on 9-10-2008 at 12:49 pm
This is cool, but what I really really want to know is why a circle? Does anyone out there have a good, plain english decription of the differences between linear & circular colliders and why one may be better than another? Wikipedia wasn’t terribly helpful. :)
posted by Brans on 9-10-2008 at 12:57 pm
@Brans –
In a linear particle accelerator, the beam travels in a straight line and eventually has to come to a stop. A circular accelerator, on the other hand, gives you an infinite distance for the beam to travel. If you had the energy to keep circulating the beam faster and faster, you could potentially let it travel forever. I assume that some of the experiments CERN has planned require the beam to be traveling longer and farther than a linear accelerator would allow.
posted by Matt on 9-10-2008 at 1:21 pm
another quote, Buckaroo Bansai… “and remember – no matter where you go, there you are”
The end of (relative) time is upon us. It’s been nice knowing some of you. I’m off to visit other life forms, and I’m taking my 401K with me.
posted by glen on 9-10-2008 at 1:32 pm
The History Channel had a show on last night about this, very interesting. Provided a great explanation about the collider, the research, why and how it works; done in a way the average, non-particl physicist could understand. Maybe the History Channel will be showing it again, I highly recommend it, fascinating stuff!
posted by Cphall32 on 9-10-2008 at 2:28 pm
why don’t they take the money spent on these projects and take care of the human race…
posted by girasol444 on 9-10-2008 at 3:41 pm
xkcd has a new post today related to the LHD. It made me giggle. I linked it in my name.
posted by adrienne on 9-10-2008 at 4:06 pm
Whoops, typo. LHC.
posted by adrienne on 9-10-2008 at 4:08 pm
This cost something like 9 billion dollars, with some sources saying more like 6 billion. The current US war has been estimated to cost something around 3 trillion dollars – although right up front the government guessed between 100-200 billion dollars.
Plus, this money comes from private donors. That war is coming from tax payer money, which is generally intended to “help human beings”.
So quit your uninformed bitching and go be a computer-critic of something that is not only expensive but manages not to accomplish anything at the same time.
posted by Anthony on 9-10-2008 at 4:10 pm
@Anthony
touchy much?
girasol never said anything about the gov’t taking care of people. He/she simply said they felt the money would be better spent somewhere else. however you may feel about girasol’s opinion, i don’t believe it had anything to do with being “uninformed.”
btw: my recaptcha was wetmore sunshine.
posted by m on 9-10-2008 at 4:53 pm
Why take the money they are spending on all of this and help the human race when they are working on creating a brand new one in that little tube.
posted by Tweaked on 9-10-2008 at 5:15 pm
I did not realize that it was so easy to mistype “hadron”. That explains the strange replies from my colleagues when I sent the email saying I was excited about the team in Europe that was searching for new hardons.
posted by Sargon on 9-10-2008 at 5:40 pm
Waiting outside the orbit of the moon is a 2 man scout ship from some unknown world. They are here to see if we, the earth, detects the ‘god particle’. If and when we do it will be either time for first contact or placing a ‘do not disturb’ warning beacon nearby.
I hope they contact us. But wait until after Bush leaves office please.
posted by Owen on 9-10-2008 at 6:14 pm
@owen…
*cue twilight zone music*
posted by kevin on 9-10-2008 at 6:32 pm
No, no. The earth has already been destroyed by this thing!
(click my name)
posted by Pointy-Hatted Geek on 9-10-2008 at 7:32 pm
I admire these scientists for all their work on this project. Heck, even understanding quantum mechanics a little bit is a tough proposition, let alone the obviously immense knowledge the scientists must have in the field. I’m taking a physical chemistry class right now, and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. I will be happy just to pass.
posted by Chloe on 9-10-2008 at 9:17 pm
Dang it, its been 24 hours. I was all ready for the planet to ’splode. I’m disappointed. ;)
posted by Tdave on 9-11-2008 at 1:37 am
They have just tested the accelerator, making sure they can control the beams and keep them in the tube. The actual collisions are due later. That’s why the world still exists. But you can keep updated by clicking my name.
But seriously, I hope no-one really believes this is going to happen.
posted by robin on 9-11-2008 at 3:48 am
Of course people believe this is going to happen!
Remember all the nutjobs who went into survivalist mode over the whole Y2K non-disaster?
Hell, I had a neighbor who believed she could communicate wit spirits and she took her whole family to the desert in Texas for the new year because the spirits told her it would be the collapse of civilization.
And as far as science? Modern people actually believe in creationism/intelligent design.
It takes a big brain to be really stupid.
posted by BassMan on 9-11-2008 at 8:59 am