Restart of Large Hadron Collider At CERN 63
Taco Cowboy contributes this news from the BBC: After a two-year hiatus the LHC (Large Hadron Collider ) at CERN has been restarted. For the past two years an upgrade program was carried out for the LHC. Due to the upgrade, the LHC is enjoying a double dose of energy, as compared to its previous self before the upgrade. Particle beams have now travelled in both directions, inside parallel pipes, at a whisker below the speed of light.
Actual collisions will not begin for at least another month. Currently the protons are being injected at a relatively low energy to begin with. But over the coming months, engineers hope to gradually increase the beams' energy to 13 trillion electronvolts: double what it was during the LHC's first operating run. The experiment teams have already detected 'splashes' of particles, which occur when stray protons hit one of the shutters used to keep the beam on-track. If this happens in part of the pipe near one of the experiments, the detectors can pick up some of the debris. ... Debris from the tiny but history-making smash-ups might contain new particles, or tell-tale gaps betraying the presence of dark matter or even hidden dimensions. But first we need collisions — due in May at the earliest — and then a steady torrent of data will make its way to physicists around the world, so that the massive analysis effort can begin."
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ungentle snoodling?
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They didn't succeed to destroy earth last time.
Maybe. Another theory, based on the many worlds theory [wikipedia.org], is that they did destroy it, but
not on our timeline.
What should we expect from this doubling of energy? The already found the Higgs. What are they looking for now? Are they just slamming hadrons together to see what happens, or is there a specific goal?
Re:Again (Score:5, Informative)
One goal is to better understand the properties of the HIggs boson by making lot more of them. This will surely happen. There are a bunch of similar things where they just want more data to get details of something already discovered.
After that, the biggest target is supersymmetry. This is a purely theoretical notion (at present) which would offer a nice explanation for one of the major mysteries of current particle physics -- why particles like the Higgs are as light as they are. At the moment we have a bunch of equally "natural" theories in which Higgs masses range from little or nothing to massively more than they are now. Hitting a value this close to zero by chance is unaesthetic and experience suggests that when something like this happens there is usually a deeper explanation. Supersymmetry is a candidate for such an explanation.It would predict a whole slew of new particles, the lightest of which might be stable and might be within reach of the new LHC. They also might make up some or all of the "dark matter" which seems to make up most of the Universe.
The dark matter is also a target in its own right. Even if it isn't made of supersymmetry particles, it might be made of some other kind of particle light enough for the LHC to make some.
Then there are more exotic conjectures around like extra dimensions and dark energy particles wjich might show up.
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Wat do u mean unaesthetic.
Re:Again (Score:4, Informative)
Wat do u mean unaesthetic.
Pretty much what it says. The theory that relates all the existing particles ("The standard model") doesn't predict a mass for the Higgs boson, it's a number you have to measure and put into the theory. The theory does suggest limits -- it can't be less than zero or more than about a million million million times what it is. So it's a bit like finding something that could in principle be anywhere on a line from New York to San Fransisco but happens to be less than one atomic diameter from the New York end of the line. It could be chance but it doesn't feel right. That "not feeling right" is what I mean by unaesthetic.
Experience in physics is that things that "don't feel right' in this way usually hint at a deeper explanation which we don't understand. This one might not, but it seems worth looking.
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This "doesn't feel right" sounds a lot like some touchy feely metaphysics feel the force bs. Ever heard of the scientific model???.
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If "intriguing" isn't a feeling, what is?
Re:Again (Score:5, Interesting)
The mass of the Higgs Boson is what's called "finely tuned" - a mathematical expression of Occam's Razor. Physics as a field is highly skeptical of models which involve "fine tuning" of constants - a constant which could, by the model, take a very wide range of values, but just happens to take this one extremely convenient value. That's another way of saying: the model fails to explain this important fact about the universe from first principles, and was instead just written to incorporate it after the fact. There's a lot of that in the Standard Model, which is why there's a lot of dissatisfaction with it, despite it being great at predicting new data.
It's a clear sign that we're missing something fundamental, something that explains all these constants, and likely a whole lot more. In a sense, Dark Matter wasn't that big of a shock because that sense of missing something fundamental has been growing for so long.
To me, it's not just the Higgs, it's all the particle masses. Particle masses aren't quantized, and the mass of quarks still has a lot of guesswork. The mass of the up quark is "1.7 to 3.1", for goodness sake. Everything else is quantized, and there is theory that sets bounds on particle masses, but there's nothing that says "here's the mass quantum, and here's the multiple of that for each particle, and here's why". Missing something fundamental, something big.
If you shrink from "doesn't feel right", understand that science starts from guesswork. And it's exactly this sort of intuition by those who work professionally in the field and (unlike me) have useful intuitions about this stuff that makes science happen. To quote Feynman:
Now I'm going to discuss how we would look for a new law. In general, ... First, we guess it (audience laughter), no, don't laugh, that's the truth. Then we compute the consequences of the guess, to see what, if this is right, if this law we guess is right, to see what it would imply and then we compare the computation results to nature or we say compare to experiment or experience, compare it directly with observations to see if it works.
If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn't matter how smart you are who made the guess, or what his name is... If it disagrees with experiment, it's wrong. That's all there is to it.
Maybe you didn't know where it all starts, when you got snarky about the scientific method?
Re:Again (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm very familiar with the scientific model, which is why they are running experiments at the LHC rather than just announcing supersymmetry as fact.
However, the scientific model doesn't tell you what experiments to run, or what theories to form or test. Scientists have to decide what they think "needs" an explanation, then they can look around for an explanation which fits the existing data and devise experiments to acquire new data to test it. If the new data fits the theory well enough the theory becomes part of our model of the universe, which is now a little more complete and precise. If it doesn't they try again. The last part is what is usually called "scientific method" but it doesn't help you decide what to try and explain, or which explanations to test first.
In this case, physicists, backed by decades of experience have identified the low mass of the Higgs boson (relative to the Planck mass, as it happens) as the kind of thing that might be expected to have an explanation (beyond just "that's how the universe is") so they have looked around for such an explanation. There are a few competing ones, of which supersymmetry is the best worked out. Actually supersymmetry is not just one theory, it has many variations, The new LHC run may support or exclude some or all of these.
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They didn't succeed to destroy earth last time.
Maybe. Another theory, based on the many worlds theory [wikipedia.org], is that they did destroy it, but
not on our timeline.
What should we expect from this doubling of energy? The already found the Higgs. What are they looking for now? Are they just slamming hadrons together to see what happens, or is there a specific goal?
This time they are looking for Higg's Bozo. That's a particle with a big, bulbous red nose and giant, oversized shoes whose antics are intended to entertain other particles.
Wait... I can do better...
They're hoping to slam hadrons together in sufficient quantity to form a sort of barrier out of them, and perhaps build Hadron's Wall!
No... hang on...
They're hoping by doubling the energy, they can also double their pleasure and double their fun! Wriggly's Scientists claim to have already achieved this, the LH
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"They're hoping to slam hadrons together in sufficient quantity to form a sort of barrier out of them, and perhaps build Hadron's Wall!"
If they did build Hadron's Wall, watch for local villagers to cannibalize it to build cool Swiss stuff, such as long-lasting chocolate molds and impregnable safe deposit boxes.
Re:Again and Again (Score:3)
the only timelines in which we exist are the ones where the LHC is delayed due to technical problems after technical problems. I wonder how many unexpected delays it will take before people at CERN get the message that reaching 13 TeV destroys the Earth.
Been there, done that (failed April Fool's Day Slashdot submission [slashdot.org]),
Evidence Suggests LHC Test Already Begun
TheRealHocusLocus (2319802) [slashdot.org] writes
"With a deliberate surge of electrical current a small metal fragment has been vaporized [ibtimes.co.uk] to fix a glitch in CERN's Large Hadron Collider [wikipedia.org] in a circular chain of events that will lead into its presence as the result of a future test. "Clearly there are exciting times ahead," suggested a member of the CERN community. "At some point --- perhaps during the 13 TeV test in May --- a TKO (Terrifically Kinetic Outburst) will occur and this tiny fragment of the machine will cross the proton stream to lodge between a magnet and diode a few days ago, preventing the scheduled March 31 start-up. This delay is confirmation that it works. You could even say we're now on 'borrowed time'."
Vaporizing the fragment unseen was part of the plan. Why not analyze it to determine which component will fail and what else could happen? "Because we didn't, obviously! Sorry. That was suggested, but there were fears that doing so would further delay the test. And spoil the surprise." Upcoming experiments planned for 2015 will attempt to more accurately reproduce early conditions after the Big Bang, and explore the possibility that cosmic Gamma Ray Bursts originate from advanced civilizations performing physics experiments.
In other news CERN has confirmed the existence of 'The Force' [web.cern.ch] by charting a recently detected disturbance, as if billions of voices are soon to cry out then go silent."
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As long as we're in the universe that doesn't include Slashdot beta, then it's OK. If we could get rid of the Kardashians, I would consider it an extra bonus, but reality being what it apparently is, one takes what is served to you.
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What should we expect from this doubling of energy? The already found the Higgs. What are they looking for now? Are they just slamming hadrons together to see what happens, or is there a specific goal?
Searching for the Higgs boson has been only a small percentage of the work the LHC is being used for. There are a lot of measurements being done checking various calculations of the standard model, looking for any place there might be hints on exactly what is needed to replace it. This can vary from just simple checking for existence of new particles, to very detailed measurements looking for very small errors in reactions that have been know about for some time. In other cases it involves improving meas
Re: Again (Score:1)
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Well those particles have been keeping their secrets pretty close.
Not double energy yet (Score:5, Informative)
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Can you tell us the value of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin in the future?
Thanks.
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Can you tell us the value of Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin in the future?
Thanks.
All worthless in the present.
It seems you could actually get about $259 in return for a bitcoin this morning.
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It seems you could actually get about $259 in return for a bitcoin this morning.
That is a purported value. It's questionable if anyone would actually hand over the cash if you wanted to exchange 20 or 30 bitcoins for US dollars.
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That happens every hour on trading sites, for multiple crypto-currencies.
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Not buying it. I think if someone wanted to unload a substantial number of bitcoins - perhaps in the $100k range - that exchange would balk.
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If you know your virtual and meatspace markets well enough, you can also make "withdrawals" from your BTC wallet by buying and s
Pressing the power button after a rebuild, and: (Score:5, Funny)
Press F1 to continue, DEL to enter Setup...
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What muppet boots their particle accelerator without setting its BIOS to skip keyboard checks.
Finally (Score:2, Funny)
Now witness the power of this fully operational LHC!
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Right after discovering the Force, too.
http://home.web.cern.ch/about/... [web.cern.ch]
Cern joke (Score:5, Funny)
A physicist is spending a vacation in Geneva near the headquarters of CERN. He's helping his wife shop, and she decides to have her hair done. She tells him, "Be back at exactly 4:00 to pick me up, no Physics." As he walks down the avenue, he sees a cute blonde peering under the hood of her car.
"Can I help you?" he asks.
"I'm stalled."
He takes out a Swiss Army knife and fiddles with the engine. "Try it." No luck. He fiddles again. "Try it again." No luck. He fiddles some more. "Try it again."
Vrooooom, vrooooom. Success at last. She says, "Thank you very much. Oh dear, your hands are covered with grease. I live nearby. You can stop and wash your hands."
He washes his hands. She offers him tea. One thing leads to another, and they jump into bed together. An hour later he jumps out of bed and says, "Look at the time!" He dresses quickly and rushes out the door. Then he stops, goes back in and asks, "Got any chalk?"
"Yeah, in the drawer over there."
He marks the back of his jacket with chalk and rushes to the hairdresser where his wife is waiting with packages and black smoke coming out of her ears. "Where were you?"
"Well, I was walking down the street and saw this attractive blonde whose car wouldn't start. I helped her, got all greasy, and went upstairs to wash my hands. One thing led to another and we jumped into bed..."
She says, "Wait a minute; turn around. You liar—you went to CERN and talked physics!"
Now we should know if string theory is alive r not (Score:2)
From what I understand through an article on /. the high energies of the Higgs Bison pretty much discredits string theory.
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Thank you for that typo... now I have that picture in my mind where a tribe of native americans, all of them wearing lab coats and glasses, are on their horses chasing the famed Higgs Bison!
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Thank you for that typo... now I have that picture in my mind where a tribe of native americans, all of them wearing lab coats and glasses, are on their horses chasing the famed Higgs Bison!
The R? Not enough room in the subject line.
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The Bison instead of Boson ;)
Oh yes, just learned how to spell it correctly just a few days ago :}
OP Vistars (Score:3, Interesting)
Posting this in case anyone is interested.