largehadroncollider
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Primed: The smashing science behind particle accelerators
Primed goes in-depth on the technobabble you hear on Engadget every day -- we dig deep into each topic's history and how it benefits our lives. You can follow the series here. Looking to suggest a piece of technology for us to break down? Drop us a line at primed *at* engadget *dawt* com. Long before the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) could smash its first atoms, researchers manning the Tevatron collider at Fermilab, in a quiet suburb 40 miles west of Chicago, raced to find evidence that the Higgs boson exists. After roughly three decades of service, the Tevatron shut down for good in late 2011, dealing the city of Batavia's largest employer a significant blow. Less than 18 months later, the LHC (the Tevatron's technological successor) also went offline - albeit temporarily. Only four years after recording its first proton collisions, the team at CERN is already scrambling to upgrade the staggering LHC, which lies under parts of no less than five cities in both France and Switzerland. With the world's largest particle colliders smashing a whole lot of nothing together for the next two years at least, the field of high-energy physics research is starting to look resource-starved. Of course, many might ask why exactly we need giant atom smashers like this, or even how they work. It turns out that first part is quite a bit easier to answer than the second. During the last several decades, particle accelerators have revealed the existence of elementary particles such as quarks, led to the discovery of antimatter and generally helped us unlock the mysteries of the universe. And once they were done splitting atoms and probing the darkest corners of theoretical physics, accelerators often led to breakthroughs in medical imaging and cancer research. So, as massive colliders seem ready to land on the endangered species list, it seems as good a time as any to explain what a particle collider is, how it works and what we as a society have to gain from the research.
Into the heart of CERN: an underground tour of the Large Hadron Collider (video)
"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland I've been to see ALICE -- though there was no looking glass to jump through, just a retina scanner and one very long elevator ride down into the earth. I've toured a CMS that has nothing to do with online publishing. I've even gently laid my body on the most powerful particle accelerator in the world and raised the ire of surrounding engineers in the interest of a good shot. I did all of this at CERN, the international particle physics laboratory located near Geneva, Switzerland. But you probably know it best as the birthplace of the world wide web and home of the Large Hadron Collider. And, yes, it was all exactly like a walking fever dream. %Gallery-192868% %Gallery-192867% %Gallery-192869% %Gallery-192870%
Visualized: step inside CERN's particle-detecting Compact Muon Solenoid
It's spring maintenance time over at the Large Hadron Collider, and the folks at CERN have seen fit to crack open the Compact Muon Solenoid to get at some of its loose connectors. You see, after three years, 99-percent of the the lead tungstate-based electromagnetic calorimeter's channels are currently operational -- but its keepers think it can do better, working on a less than reliable connection that has the preshower down to a paltry 97-percent. Naturally, they've cracked the thing open and thankfully given us a peek inside the beast.
Large Hadron Collider stops for two years of tune-ups, goes out on a high note (video)
We've long known that the Large Hadron Collider would need to take a break, but that doesn't take the edge off of the moment itself: as of Valentine's Day, the particle accelerator has conducted its last test for the next two years. The giant research ring will undergo sweeping repairs and upgrades that should should give it the superconducting connectors needed to hit the originally planned 14TeV of combined collision energy, versus the 8TeV it's been limited to almost since the beginning. CERN's machine arguably earned the downtime. After a rough start, it went on to produce rafts of collision data and healthy evidence of the elusive Higgs boson. If you're still down, think of the hiatus as doing us a favor -- it postpones any world-ending disasters until around 2015.
Large Hadron Collider may have produced a previously undetected form of matter
Teams at the Large Hadron Collider must be developing a knack for producing tangible evidence of theoretical particles. After orchestrating 2 million collisions between lead nuclei and protons, like the sort you see above, the collider's Compact Muon Solenoid group and researchers at MIT suspect that stray, linked pairs of gluon particles in the mix were signs of color-glass condensate, a currently theory-only form of matter that sees gluons travel in liquid-like, quantum-entangled waves. The clues aren't definitive, but they were also caught unexpectedly as part of a more routine collision run; the team is curious enough that it's looking for more evidence during weeks of similar tests in January. Any conclusive proof of the condensate would have an impact both on how we understand particle production in collisions as well as the ways gluons and quarks are arranged inside protons. If so, the CMS and MIT teams may well answer a raft of questions about subatomic physics while further justifying CERN's giant underground rings.
Rovio and CERN teaming up on education: hopefully the Angry Birds help us this time [update]
The last time CERN and an angry bird met, it didn't end so well: the Large Hadron Collider overheated after a feathered creature reportedly dropped its breakfast on outdoor machinery. Things should go much more smoothly this time around, with CERN and Rovio partnering on an educational initiative that will be unveiled in full at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 12th. Although the two are shy on just what's entailed beyond the presence of some Angry Birds material at the event, the union will mark the start of Rovio's learning brand and likely represent more in the long run than another Angry Birds Space tie-in. We're mostly wondering if subatomic physics research will explain why we still can't three-star some levels in a physics-based game. Update: Rovio and CERN announced "Angry Birds Playground" this morning, which the company describes as, "a learning program for 3- to 8-year-olds based on the Finnish National Curriculum for kindergarten." In so many words, CERN and Rovio are partnering on an educational initiative aimed at young children which employs the iconic Angry Birds characters. It's unclear whether the initiative will spawn games or books or ... what exactly, but there you have it.
Alt-week 8.4.12: buckyballs, bosons and bodily fluids
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Remember when we told you last week that we live in a strange world? Well, we had no idea what we were talking about. Seriously, things are about to get a whole lot weirder. High school is certainly a head-scratcher, no matter how old you are, but the mathematics of social hierarchies can't hold a candle to the mysteries of the buckyball. And, if the strange behavior of the familiar carbon molecule isn't enough for you, we've got an entirely new molecule to contend with, while the once-elusive Higgs Boson is getting us closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe. It's all pretty heady stuff, which is why we're also gonna take a quick detour to the world of human waste. This is alt-week.
CERN update on its search for Higgs boson starts at 3AM ET (video)
The cat would appear to be out of the bag, but if you must find out about the status of the Higgs boson search ASAP, check the video stream (embedded after the break) as CERN scientists reveal whatever it is they've found. The webcast is scheduled to kick off at 2:55AM ET, as a prelude to this year's ICHEP particle physics conference in Melbourne. Whenever the announcement comes we'll be sure to let you know, check the links below for more information. Update: So yeah, they've found a new particle "consistent with Higgs boson," check out all the details here.
Higgs boson just may, possibly, more or less be proven to exist by ATLAS and CMS teams
We had a false alarm over the possible discovery of the theory-unifying Higgs boson last year, but a bit of poking and prodding in subsequent months may well have given us much more definitive evidence of the elusive particle. According to some rare rumors emerging from Nature, both CERN's ATLAS and CMS detectors have seen particle decay signals suggesting the existence of Higgs to within a 4.5 to 5 sigma level of proof -- in other words, very nearly concrete evidence. That's not quite the 5-plus needed to settle the matter, but it's to a much higher level of certainty than before. As if to add fuel to the fire, ScienceNews even located a briefly posted, CERN-made video (sadly, since pulled) saying bluntly that the CMS team had "observed a new particle." Whether or not there's any substance is another matter. Nature hears that scientists are supposedly still working out what to say at an event on Wednesday, while CERN has made the slightly odd claim to ScienceNews that the yanked video is just one of several pre-recorded segments made to cover possible outcomes -- you know, in that "Dewey defeats Truman" sort of way. Unless the scientists have to go back to the drawing board, though, the focus from now on may be more on learning how Higgs behaves than its very existence. Any significant truth could see researchers proving the validity of the standard model of physics just as we're firing up our Independence Day barbecues.
Large Hadron Collider affected by full moon, ocean commiserates
Large Hadron Collider not running properly? If you've read the docs and restarted it, check for a full moon. After noticing fewer particle collisions while on her shift, Pauline Gagnon reached out to a control room operator who casually explained that they adjust beam alignment during full moons. Yes, the tide-producing orbit of Earth's satellite tugs the LHC's inner workings ever so slightly askew. Though minute, the changes add up over the collider's 27km circumference and are picked up by monitoring equipment sensitive enough to measure elementary particles. However, Luna isn't the only thing that affects the accelerator -- the water level in Lake Geneva and passing high-speed rail trains also do the trick. Will your hand react differently to the LHC's beam under a Harvest Moon? Probably not. In any case, hit the source for the scientific details.
CERN crew takes to Google+ for live Hangout
Got questions for CERN crew? We know we do. For instance, if a Higgs boson falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it still create a miniature black hole that swallows the Earth and destroys us all? Well if you've got queries for the folks working the LHC, attempting to unlock the secrets of the universe then hit up the source link for a live Hangout at that most nerdy of social networks Google+. The conversation starts at 1 pm eastern time.
Large Hadron Collider to increase beam energy: Higgs boson can run, not hide
We've seen the Large Hadron Collider running at a record-breaking 7 TeV for short periods, but now CERN is turning it up a notch (to 4 TeV from 3.5) for the rest of the year. The decision comes after an annual performance workshop last week in Chamonix and a report from the CERN Machine Advisory Committee (CMAC). The increase may seem modest compared to the knee-trembling levels of 7 TeV, but it's all part of a broader optimization strategy. Scientists state the new approach should increase the data collected in 2012 to 15 inverse femtobarns -- a three-fold jump from 2011. Even more encouraging is a statement from CERN's Research Director, Sergio Bertolucci, who claims that we should finally know for sure about the existence of the Higgs boson -- either way -- before the LHC enters a temporary shut-down period at the end of the year. Beam yourself over the break for the full press release.
LHC discovers 'particle', starts repaying back that five billion
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was built to discover new life forms and new civilizations particles to complete the Standard Model of physics, of which the Higgs-Boson is only a part. The $5 billion project has finally found something previously unseen, according to the BBC. ATLAS has picked up Chi-b 3P: a Boson (building block of nature) Meson comprised of a "beauty quark" and a "beauty anti-quark," bound together with a strong nuclear force -- believed to exist in nature, but never seen until now. Yesterday's discovery is so new, it hasn't even had a sigma rating yet, but we don't expect CERN to confirm the find until its next two hour keynote. Update: The initial report described the particle as a Boson (elemental force carriers), it is in fact a Meson (which comprise of a quark and an anti-quark).
CERN: 'Don't believe the Higgs-Boson hype' (update: not yet)
CERN is pouring cold water on the rumor it's gonna announce the discovery of the Higgs at today's seminar in Zurich. For the uninitiated: the Higgs-Boson is the particle that is believed to give all things mass: it surrounds us, penetrates us and binds the galaxy together. The scuttlebutt is that the ATLAS sensor picked up a Higgs with a mass of 125GeV (gigaelectronvolts) and rated at three-point-five-sigma -- a one sigma barely warrants a mention, a five-sigma is a bona-fide scientific discovery. CERN hasn't confirmed or denied anything, claiming it's still got five inverse femtobarns worth of data (roughly 5 x 70 x 10^12 of individual collisions) to examine before it can be sure, so just chuck the one bottle of champagne into the refrigerator -- better to be safe, eh? Update: Looks like we don't need to bust out the bubbly, after all. The conclusion from the two-hour presentation is that the ATLAS detector has been able to narrow down the region it believes the Higgs is in to 115.5GeV to 131GeV and that any discovery so-far only has a rating of two point three sigma. The CMS is similarly inconclusive, with results bobbing around the two sigma region. In short, whilst they know where they should look, they haven't been able to find one -- yet.
Pour one out for the Tevatron particle accelerator, because it's shutting down today
The eyes of the physics community are collectively fixed upon Illinois today, where, later this afternoon, researchers at Fermilab will shut down the Tevatron particle accelerator... for good. That's right -- the world's second-largest collider is being laid to rest, after a remarkable 25-year run that was recently halted due to budgetary constraints. Earlier this year, Fermilab's scientists and a group of prominent physicists pleaded with the government to keep the Tevatron running until 2014, but the Energy Department ultimately determined that the lab's $100 million price tag was too steep, effectively driving a nail through the accelerator's subterranean, four-mile-long coffin. First activated in 1985, the Tevatron scored a series of subatomic breakthroughs over the course of its lifespan, including, most notably, the discovery of the so-called top quark in 1995. Its groundbreaking technology, meanwhile, helped pave the way for CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which will now pursue the one jewel missing from the Tevatron's resume -- the Higgs boson. Many experts contend that the collider could've gone on to achieve much more, but its ride will nonetheless come to an inglorious end at 2PM today, when Fermilab director Pier Oddone oversees the Tevatron's last rites. "That will be it," physicist Gregorio Bernardi told the Washington Post. "Then we'll have a big party."
CERN's LHC@home 2.0 project simulates a Large Hadron Collider in the cloud
"You break it, you bought it," came to mind when researchers at the Centre for European Nuclear Research (CERN) announced the LHC@home 2.0 project, giving us regular Joes access to the Large Hadron Collider. OK, we kid; the reality is that much like SETI@home and Folding@home, a whole group of volunteering home computers link up together, and while idle they quietly help simulate LHC particle collisions according to CERN's theoretical models. Scientists there then compare these results with those from actual LHC experiments in order to check for any instrumental or theoretical errors, thus potentially speeding up the mission to find the God particle in a low cost manner. Besides being a great way to get your science on, the cloud-based program also makes CERN's resources (like crisis mapping and damage assessment) available to researchers in developing nations that may not to be able to afford the accelerator's $6 billion dollar price tag -- but nowadays, what nation can?
Large Hadron Collider smashes beam intensity record, inches closer to discovering God particle
Already a record holder for mashing protons together at 7 TeV (trillion electron volts), the Large Hadron Collider can now add world's brightest beam to its list of accomplishments. Beam intensity is a way of measuring the number of collisions in its 17-mile-long track, and a higher intensity means more impacts -- which, in turn, means more data, increasing the likelihood that the elusive Higgs boson will rear its head (should such a thing exist). The LHC smashed the previous luminosity record set last year by the Tevatron collider. What's next for the CERN team, with two world records under its belt? Largest beard of bees.
Theorists get us closer to believing time travel is possible via the Large Hadron Collider
Hard to say if Doc Brown would give this his coveted seal of approval, but our gullible minds have already been made up: time travel is not only possible, but it's well within reach. A gaggle of scientists have apparently figured out a theory that could use the Large Hadron Collider to move a Higgs singlet back and forth through time. The 'catch' is that they have yet to prove the existence of said singlet, but the upside is that nothing in theory violates any laws of physics or experimental constraints. In other words, this wouldn't enable a human to move back and forth along the universal timetable à la Fringe, but it could allow for messages to be sent forward and back. About 14 other improbable things have to happen before this could even be tested, but if you're even remotely interested in the concept (c'mon, you are), you owe it to yourself to give those source links a peek.
Large Hadron Collider wants to make mini Big Bangs, Sheldon and Leonard disapprove
The Large Hadron Collider has been busily colliding protons since it opened last year, but a new set of experiments starting later this month could tell us more about the beginnings of the universe than we've ever known before. At CERN, where the LHC is housed in Geneva, scientists will attempt to create mini Big Bangs (the full-sized one is generally accepted as having created the actual universe about 13.7 billion years ago). The process will involve shooting lead ions through the 17-mile long collider, and accelerating them to relativistic speeds before colliding them head-on with protons. According to popular wisdom this should cause an explosion resulting in the creation of brand spanking new particles. Although similar experiments have been conducted on a much smaller scale at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, this will be the first time scientists have attempted to accurately recreate conditions exactly like the Big Bang. Hit the source link for the full story.
What would happen if you put your hand in the Large Hadron Collider? Er, well, um... (video)
Scientists, they've made our lives infinitely easier, healthier, and longer, but sometimes even their giant intellects can be stumped. Here we have a perfect example of such a scenario, where the seemingly innocuous question of what might happen if one were to dip a hand inside the Large Hadron Collider has generated a wide range of hypotheses, none of which sound particularly assured of being correct. The trouble is that, aside from the known unknowns -- such as whether the accelerated protons would crash and explode upon contact with your hand or just pass through -- there are surely unknown unknowns that will likely become apparent only once you try to do the act itself. So, any volunteers?