Will The 'God Particle' Be Found This Year?

Dr Rolf-Dieter Heuer said: 'If the Large Hadron Collider continues to work I know we have enough collisions to produce enough signals to identify the Higgs Boson' Photo: Rex

CERN Director Says LHC Will Find God Particle By End Of The Year -- The Telegraph

The Large Hadron Collider is to be switched off at the end of the year to undergo a major upgrade, but scientists hope to have achieved one of the machine's major goals by the time it does – proving the existence of the so called God Particle.

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director of CERN where the LHC is based, said he was confident that by the end of the year it will be possible to say whether the Higgs Boson, the particle which is responsible for giving mass to the universe, exists.

The theoretical particle, nicknamed the God Particle due to its central role it has in explaining modern physics, has never been detected and scientists have been working for decades to prove its existence.

Read more ....

My Comment: The CERN director seems to be very sure of himself.

LHC To Shift Gears This Month And Create Mini Big Bangs

A Simulated Black Hole Event in the LHC's ATLAS Detector If this is what a black hole looks like, imagine a Big Bang. CERN/ATLAS

From Popular Science:

The new round of experiments aim to find out what matter looked like at the dawn of time.

Smashing protons at high energies is fun and all, but researchers at the Large Hadron Collider are taking a vacation from their day-to-day proton smashing, and taking a trip back to the very origins of the universe. Starting this month and continuing for four weeks, the LHC will accelerate and then collide lead ions – that is, entire atomic nuclei – to create a series of miniature Big Bangs that will let researchers take a look at the quark-gluon plasma that existed just a fraction of a second after the universe was born.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider Signal 'May Show Big Bang Conditions'

The "high multiplicity collision" signal picked up by the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Photo: CERN

From The Telegraph:

A never-before-seen signal in a collision at the Large Hadron Collider has raised hopes that the giant particle accelerator is on the verge of serious breakthroughs.

A series of high-energy proton-proton collisions observed at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector led to 100 or more charged particles being produced. These so-called "high multiplicity" collisions were unusual in that the resulting particles are "correlated" - associated with each other at the moment of their creation. One interpretation of the results is that the protons are being forced together at such high energies that the quarks that form them are released, becoming a free-flowing fluid of quarks and gluons like that which existed immediately after the big bang.

Read more ....

LHC Finds 'Interesting Effects'

From The BBC:

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider say they are getting some fascinating early results as they get set to probe new areas of physics.

The giant machine on the Franco-Swiss border is studying the fundamental nature of matter by smashing together proton particles at near light-speed.

Its CMS detector is reported to have seen "new and interesting effects".

These effects concern the particular paths taken by the debris particles as they move away from the impacts.

Read more ....

10 Questions The LHC May Answer

From Discovery News:

It's been just over a year since the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator, suffered a serious malfunction that shut it down only nine days after going online. But as of this weekend, the LHC is back up and running.

Scientists will use the collider to recreate conditions following the Big Bang, by accelerating beams of subatomic particles (protons and lead ions, called hadrons) around a massive underground racetrack.

Read more ....

Cern's Giant Collider Is Back – And The Hunt For Fundamental New Insights Is On

The Large Hadron Collider is set for record-breaking high-energy particle experiments after an 18-month delay for repairs. Photograph: Reuters

From The Guardian:

• Two beams of protons will be collided at record energy levels
• Large Hadron Collider may find Higgs boson, or 'God particle'

The largest, most complex scientific instrument in the world will begin its long-delayed hunt for new particles, forces and extra dimensions on Tuesday at Cern, the European Nuclear Research Organisation, on the outskirts of Geneva.

Read more ....

Atom Smasher Will Help Reveal 'The Beginning'

Physicists gather at CERN to witness results of the LHC's first half-power particle collisions. Photograph courtesy Maximilien Brice, CERN

From The Washington Post:

GENEVA -- The world's largest atom smasher threw together minuscule particles racing at unheard of speeds in conditions simulating those just after the Big Bang - a success that kick-started a megabillion-dollar experiment that could one day explain how the universe began.

Scientists cheered Tuesday's historic crash of two proton beams, which produced three times more energy than researchers had created before and marked a milestone for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider.

Read more ....

World's Largest Particle Collider May Unlock Secrets of Universe

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the CERN laboratory. (Credit: Courtesy of CERN)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Mar. 25, 2010) — The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, could generate astonishing new insights into the Big Bang, the building blocks of the universe, the mysterious properties of dark matter and perhaps even extra dimensions in the universe.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider To Start Hunt For 'God Particle'

Engineers have been installing a new protection system for the LHC's magnets

From The BBC:

The organisation that operates the Large Hadron Collider has set a date for the start of its science programme.

On Tuesday 30 March, engineers at Cern will make their first attempt to collide beams at an energy of 3.5 trillion electronvolts (TeV) per beam.

The LHC reached this beam energy last week, breaking its own particle beam energy record.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider Breaks Energy Record

From The Telegraph:

The Large Hadron Collider has broken its own record for high energy particle streams.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or Cern, said beams of protons circulated at 3.5 trillion electron volts in both directions around the 27-kilometre (17-mile) tunnel housing the LHC under the Swiss-French border at Geneva. That is three times more energy than it has ever achieved before.

Read more ....

Hadron Collider To Be Closed Amid Fears Of A Very Big Bang

Large Hadron Collider

From The Independent:

12-month shutdown to repair design flaw that could break apart world's most expensive scientific experiment.

The world's single most complicated and expensive scientific experiment, designed to discover the "God particle" and recreate the conditions that existed at the dawn of creation, will be switched off for a year to correct a design problem that could break it apart if it ran on full power.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider To Shut Down, Not Baguette This Time

From Techeye.net:

World record collision energies aren’t enough - it needs more power!!

The Large Hardon Collider (LHC) is to shut down at the end of 2011, just in time to cause the (speculated) end of the world by 2012.

According to reports, the atom smashing machine needs to fix design and safety issues which is stopping it from reaching its potential. Apparently, world record collisions of 7 trillion electron volts isn’t enough - the LHC needs to be made safer before collisions at about twice that level can start.

The LHC is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), with the goal of colliding protons or lead ions at very high energy, recreating the conditions after the Big Bang.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider Will Finally Reach Full Power In 2013... Eight Years Behind Schedule

The magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Scientists at Cern said the machine will not reach full capacity until 2013

From The Daily Mail:

The Large Hadron Collider, which scientists hope will recreate the conditions just moments after the Big Bang, is to shut down for a whole year.

Scientists are set to run the particle-accelerating machine at half power for at least 18 months, sending seven trillion electron volts around the specially-built 17-mile tunnel.

Read more ....

Big Bang Collider Restarts At Cern In Bid To Discover Origins Of The Universe

Technicians install electric cables at the heart of the ATLAS detector, part of the Large Hadron Collider, which was restarted last night

From The Daily Mail:

Scientists have restarted the world largest atom smasher over-night, in a fresh bid to uncover the secrets of the universe.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, sent low energy beams of protons in both directions around the 17-mile particle accelerator under the Swiss-French border at Geneva.

Read more ....

First Results From Large Hadron Collider Published

Photo: The "extra" particles may make spotting the Higgs boson harder

From The BBC:

The results from the highest-energy particle experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in December have begun to yield their secrets.

Scientists from the LHC's Compact Muon Solenoid detector has now totted up all of the resulting particle interactions.

They wrote in the Journal of High Energy Physics that the run created more particles than theory predicted.

Read more ....

Physicists Beginning To See Data From The Large Hadron Collider

Last month the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider began recording proton-proton collisions at a record energy of 2.36 trillion electron volts. Image courtesy of the ATLAS experiment. (Credit: Image courtesy of Iowa State University)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 7, 2010) — Three Iowa State University physicists who took winter trips to the Large Hadron Collider for meetings and experimental work are starting to see real data from the planet's biggest science experiment.

Finally.

The multibillion-dollar collider made international news on Sept. 10, 2008, when it sent its first beam of protons around 17 miles of underground tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland. But breakdowns in the machine's high-current electrical connections forced a complete shutdown for more than a year of repairs and tests.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider Failure Will Leave Science Back In The 'Wilderness'

Particle tracks of protons collided in CERN's Large Hadron Collider Photo: AP

From The Telegraph:

Science will be left back in a "nightmarish wilderness" if the Large Hadron Collider fails to find the elusive Higgs Boson, warns a rebel physicist.

Former Harvard research scholar, professor Shahriar Afshar said that failure to find the particle would bring current scientific theory tumbling down like a house of cards with nothing to replace it.

The controversial physicist, whose Afshar experiment has already found a loophole in quantum theory, said that unless the scientific community starts contemplating a "plan B", failure could lead to "chaos and infighting".

Read more ....

The LHC Hits 2.36 Trillion Electron Volts—But What Does it Mean?

From Popular Mechanics:

The Large Hadron Collider is back up and running and already breaking records, with a 1.18-trillion-electron-volt beam. But even the basic definition of an electron volt is Latin to most. So what do the new numbers mean? Here, PM explains the electric insides—the electrons and proton beams, joules, volts and megawatts, created and consumed by the world's most powerful proton accelerator.

Read more ....

Large Hadron Collider Creates World-Record Energy Collisions As It Gears Up For Big Bang Test

This image provided by CERN shows particle tracks as protons collided in CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Physicists hope those collisions will help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter

From The Daily Mail:

The world's largest atom smasher has smashed particles together at the highest energy achieved in a laboratory, a spokeswoman has confirmed.

The Large Hadron Collider recorded its first high-energy collisions of protons on Tuesday evening, as it underwent test runs in preparation for full-scale operations next year.

More than 10 billion protons per bunch collided at a total energy of 2.36 trillion electron volts (TeV) per collision.

Read more ....

LHC Gets First Results; Step Toward "God Particle"?

A Large Ion Collider Experiment, or ALICE, (pictured above) recorded the first results from a proton-proton collision inside the Large Hadron Collider, physicists announced in December 2009. The collision created the precise ratio of matter and antimatter particles predicted from theory, showing that the so-called "big bang" machine is working as expected. Picture by Maximilien Brice, copyright CERN

From National Geographic:

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is quickly making up for lost time: The first scientific results from the recently restarted particle accelerator have been announced—about two weeks ahead of schedule.

During the first collisions of the LHC's twin beams of protons, a machine called A Large Ion Collider Experiment, or ALICE, collected the results from a proton-proton smashup.

Read more ....